Speak Out low res October 2016

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October 2016 Speak Out 23
Ethics news
The 10 members of the SPA Ethics Board,
Vice President Communications and Senior
Advisor Ethics and Professional Issues met at
National Office over the weekend 12–14 August,
for the annual training weekend. The Ethics
Board membership includes seven speech
pathologists: the chair, three senior members
(appointed by the Board of Directors) plus
three elected members; and three community
representatives who are not speech pathologists.
The Ethics Board is responsible for managing
ethical complaints related to members’ speech
pathology practice as well as promoting ethical
practice in speech pathology, including provision
of education to encourage and support proactive
application of our professional ethics in our
practice. The Board achieves this objective
by publishing articles, running conference
workshops and ongoing development of the SPA
Ethics Education Package.
The training weekend started on Friday evening
with a presentation from Dr Arthur Rallis,
lawyer, on ethical breaches and determination
of appropriate penalties. The Board spent the
following day completing training activities,
including examination of ethical issues that may
arise when speech pathologists work with people
living with dysphagia as they transition to the
NDIS. The weekend concluded at midday on
Sunday after a full meeting of the Ethics Board. It
was a full program that inspired robust discussion
and exploration of current trends in professional
speech pathology ethics.
Ethics Board members regularly contribute articles
published in the Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-
Language Pathology (JCPSLP). Are you aware that the
Ethics Board published an ethics supplement of the
JCPSLP in 2015? The supplement contains articles from
2005–2015 written by members of the Ethics Board and
colleagues. The supplement is available through open
access, and the articles are organised thematically to cover
emerging trends in ethical issues, ethics in the workplace,
ethics and technology, ethics and dysphagia management,
and ethics and clinical education. This issue of JCPSLP can
be viewed here:
JCPSLP-Vol-17-Supplement-1-2015-lores
The Ethics Education Package is currently a hard-copy
document that members can download at no charge from
the SPA website. Dr Suze Leitao, Chair of the Ethics Board,
and Dr Belinda Kenney, an elected member, are currently
working on the development of the package into an online
learning format, which will be piloted between now and
the end of 2016. Keep your eyes open for the new online
modules in 2017.
SPA Ethics Board training weekend
Ethics education
Ethics Board Community
Representative
Grant Meredith
Grant has been a SPA Ethics Board Community
Representative since 2010. This role entails participation
in investigation panels when a formal ethics complaint is
received against a member, as well as contributing to the
quarterly meetings and educational activities of the Board.
Grant lectures in the Faculty of Science and Technology,
School of Engineering and Information Technology at
Federation University Australia in multimedia and games.
He was awarded Alumnus of the Year from the university
in 2015, in the Outstanding Service to the Community
nomination category.
community/alumni/about-
alumni/alumni-awards/2015-
alumni-award-recipients
The award was given to Grant
in recognition of his role in
establishing and leading the
Technologies for Empowering
People for Participation in
Society (TEPPS) program.
This program has produced a
number of software programs
that are designed to assist
people with special needs,
including Scenari-Aid which
is an online “social simulator”,
providing opportunities to
practise communication in
a variety of simulated social
environments.
From Left Trish Johnson (SAEPI) and Ethics Board members include Trish Bradd,
Donna Dancer, Belinda Kenny, Suze Leitao, Richard Saker, Sue Block, Tristan Nickless,
Felicity Burke, Helen Smith and Grant Meredith.
Trish Johnson
Senior Advisor Ethical and Professional Issues
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