Speak Out December LOW RES FINAL 2017

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14 Speak Out December 2017
Aged Care
Working Party
The SPA Aged Care Working Party held its last meeting
in Melbourne in November. The working party had a day
of collaborative brain storming and planning for future
activities and advocacy relating to speech pathology in
aged care.
Facebook Ageing and
Aged Care Member
Community
Be sure to join the SPA Ageing and Aged Care Facebook
member community page. Latest aged care information,
articles and resources are shared regularly and it’s a great
way to network and share with other speech pathologist’s
in the aged care sector.
LASA Congress
The Leading Aged Services Association
(LASA) Congress was held on the Gold
Coast on 15-17 October. Jess Hayward
SPA Aged Care Project Officer, and
Amanda Dansky SPA Aged Care Working
Party, attended to raise awareness about
the role of speech pathology in ageing
and aged care via a marketing pod.
Across the three days, we had several
interested service providers, academics
and businesses asking questions
and taking away flyers about speech
pathology. The “Communication Matters”
DVD was on loop with lots of chat
about the importance of communication
assessment and supports in aged care.
Overall it was a successful awareness
activity. A special thankyou to Amanda
Dansky for volunteering her time for the
event.
Advocacy in aged care
DVA and Stroke Alliance
In October and November, the SPA aged care team attended
National Stroke Coalition and Department Veteran Affairs (DVA)
Health Consultative Forum meetings. These meetings provided an
opportunity to advocate and highlight the role of speech pathology
in older people post stroke or for those who receive care under
DVA.
Key updates in the area of stroke
include:
• Work is being undertaken to roll out the tele-stroke program
nationally. This provides a network of neurologists and stroke
specialists to provide assessment and intervention through
telemedicine including educating staff and family using scans
and images in a “flip around” screen.
• New stroke guidelines were launched during Stroke Week. The
guidelines are online via InformMe and summary documents
for health care professionals and consumers have been
developed with more specific discipline (medical, nursing and
allied health) guidelines to follow.
From DVA:
The review of allied health and dental service continues.
The DVA is focused on improving both provider and veteran
engagement through DVA transformation projects and co-design of
services.
Feedback was provided regarding the delay in approval of DVA
services for speech pathologists. Members are encouraged to
continue to alert SPA to these issues so as we can continue to give
feedback to DVA.
Members are encouraged to sign up to the DVA Provider