Speak Out April 2017 low res FINAL

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June 2017 Speak Out 35
Tasmania
TAS 109
members
as at April 2017
For when we can’t be face to face
Have you “liked” our Facebook page “where does speech
pathology fit into your life?” If not jump online and check it
out! There are lots of posts highlighting the diverse scope of
our practice as well as information about some state-specific
events. For Tasmanian members there is also the Facebook
group page set up by National Office. Just search for Tasmania
Branch Member Community on Facebook and hit the Request
to Join button.
Tasmanian Branch welcome event
In early May, the Tasmanian Branch held two simultaneous social events, one in the north and
one in the south of the state, to welcome all new speech pathologists as well as any other
SLPs who wanted to come and find out more about what was happening within the Branch.
Collectively we had over 20 people attend, which is over one-fifth of our membership (wow
– nice job Tassie speechies!). In our state there is nothing that says “welcome” like a glass of
wine next to an open fire! Thanks to everyone who supported this event and a special thank
you to those members who came to the meeting beforehand for the first time. We hope to
see you again. Branch meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month and are video-
conferenced across the four major hospitals in the state.
Keeping it plain!
The Tasmanian Branch is a proud official supporter
of the state government’s 26TEN Adult Literacy
initiative. 26TEN represents the 26 letters of the
alphabet and 10 numbers – the tools for literacy.
Some SPA Tasmanian branch members attended a
breakfast recently as part of Plain English Awareness
Month where a number of prominent people from
the legal profession, including former High Court
Justice Michael Kirby spoke about the importance
of using language that is accessible to all people in
our society. The Tasmanian Education Department’s
speech pathologists have recently adopted using
plain English for their report writing and although this
transition has been challenging at times (especially
writing in the first person!), much positive feedback
has been received. They would be keen to hear from
any other speech pathology departments across
the country which have also switched to using plain
English as their preferred communication style.
Please email
Kiara Hyland, Hannah Kelly, Nat Bown, Janine Hart, Steph Mills, Isobel Lewis and
Ally Mok.