26 Speak Out
December 2014
Speech Pathology Australia
Celebrating communication across the Victorian Branch
BRANCH news
Victoria
It has been
a busy couple of months
for the Victorian Branch, with many
events held and attended. At the end
of August we celebrated Speech
Pathology Week and ICP2014, and what
better way to do it than a little
trivia at
Bridie O’Reilly’s in Brunswick
. We
had an amazing turnout of 120 people
– speechies and non-speechies – who
all came to test their general knowledge
and celebrate communication. The
bonus round of speech pathology
questions was unexpectedly challenging
and the night was won by the “Fricatively
Speaking” team. Celebrations continued
with a photo booth and Instagram
competition (
).
Check out
some of the snaps below.
A great time was had by all and we’re
looking forward to the next one! A big
thank you to the Member Engagement
committee, with a special mention for
Amanda Simionato and Erin de Winter
and their amazing efforts in putting the
night together.
On the 9 October we were excited to
hear about some new research our
PhD students are involved in at the
University of Melbourne School
of Health Sciences Research
Colloquium
. This is an annual event
that gives graduate research students
an opportunity to showcase their hard
work. Four departments participated in
the colloquium including nursing, social
work, physiotherapy, and audiology and
speech pathology. The audiology and
speech pathology department, based
within the Neurosciences Unit and led by
Dr Adam Vogel, had three presenters:
•
Meghan Keage, PhD Candidate:
Swallowing function in Friedreich’s
ataxia (Oral Presentation)
•
Johanna Tan, PhD Candidate:
Lexical tone acquisition in cochlear
implant users (Oral Presentation)
•
Matthew Poole, PhD Candidate:
Communication impairment in
young onset dementias (Poster)
Congratulations to Meghan,
Johanna and Matthew for their
successful presentations, and special
congratulations to Meghan who won
the Speech Pathology Australia prize for
best presentation.
On 24 October, the University of
Melbourne final year Master of Speech
Pathology students enjoyed a
Wine and
Cheese Night
supported by the Victorian
Branch and the University of Melbourne.
It was a wonderful opportunity to
celebrate final classes and upcoming
graduation with fellow students and
academic staff (
pictured above
).
Students also appreciated learning more
about becoming professional members
of Speech Pathology Australia, continuing
professional development, supervision
and mentoring from the guest speaker,
Victorian Branch President, Jessica
Andrianakis. Thank you to the Victorian
SPA Branch for sponsoring the event,
which was very much appreciated and
enjoyed by the University of Melbourne
Speech Pathology class of 2014.
The Victorian Branch also participated in
the
Pregnancy, Baby and Children’s
Expo
, held at the Melbourne Exhibition
Centre from 24–26 October. The event
was a great success, with feedback
from our volunteers reporting lots of
interest from a wide range of consumers
including parents, teachers, healthcare
workers, and prospective students. The
free raffle to win the shortlisted books
from the 2014 Book of the Year awards
was also a great hit! The aim of the SPA
stand (
pictured below
) was to provide
information to the public about the role
of speech pathology, how to contact a
speech pathologist, and to direct people
towards information on the SPA website.
We also distributed pamphlets regarding
expected developmental norms for
babies through to school-aged children.
SPA would like to extend a big thank
you to our enthusiastic student and
professional volunteers who helped out
on the stand and contributed to the
success of the event! Keep your eyes
out for the 2015 Pregnancy Baby &
Children’s Expo next year.
But the year hasn’t ended and we still
have a couple of events left on the
Agenda. We hope the final year La Trobe
students enjoy their professional day
on 5 December with wine and cheese
provided by Speech Pathology Australia
and we look forward to celebrating the
year at the Victorian Branch AGM on 26
November.
Alice Crook, Jessica Andrianakis,
Leah Paice
and
Paige Marshall
Victorian Branch
