Speak Out February 2018

Branch News

Graduate reflections: One year later

Northern Territory

Growing up in Darwin I have always had an interest in Indigenous health and how allied health professionals can contribute to improving health outcomes for Indigenous people. Working at the Royal Darwin Hospital as a new graduate, I have been given opportunities that I would not have had down south. I have experienced children with complex feeding issues, children with clefts, stroke patients, dementia patients, and acquired brain injury patients all within my first year of graduating. At university we are taught how to conduct receptive and expressive language assessments with their standardised norms, but what do we use when these are not appropriate? How do you apply a standardised assessment on someone who speaks English as their third or fourth language? How do you tailor these assessments to be culturally appropriate? How do you interview a patient who has no escort to interpret information? There is a reason the saying “Territory tough” exists. Over the last 12 months, I have been working as a new graduate speech pathologist with the Children’s Development Team, in the greater Darwin region. I have been blown away by the adversities families face. Families that travel two hours for therapy, families that look after ten children, and families that have to start an ASD investigation process again after moving interstate. I’ve also found that multiculturalism is a part of Darwin’s identity. It has been incredible working with families that are from parts of the world I had never heard of. It has required a lot of research about languages and cultures. I’ve loved seeing how delighted parents become when told about the benefits of being multilingual.

How do you explain dysphagia or aphasia to someone with a different understanding of what health means? Working with Indigenous stroke patients has encouraged me to use a “think outside the box” approach. As a new graduate, a supportive department and clinical supervisor has assisted me to develop my clinical reasoning skills, and consider different ways to gather information about receptive and expressive language abilities, without relying on formal assessments. Working with such a culturally rich client base, I look forward to continuing to learn and question how speech pathologists can better service and hopefully contribute to improved health outcomes in Indigenous people. As a new graduate, I think the onus is on us to strive for a more responsive speech pathology service in all areas of our profession.

NT 55 members as at December 2017

Shari Fuller Speech Pathologist

Of course working here does not come without difficult experiences. At times over the year I have had feelings of helplessness, particularly when families are unable to engage with services. I have spent a lot of time reflecting on how to engage vulnerable families; it is a tough issue that plagues many speech pathologists and other allied health professionals in the top end. What I do know is I would not have been able to get through my first year in the NT in one piece without the support of the compassionate, innovative, and experienced speech pathologists that live in this beautiful tropical location.

Anna Green Speech Pathologist

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February 2018 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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