Speak Out Dec 2016 low res final

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30 Speak Out December 2016
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“I’m one of those speechies that comes to the profession
with what could be described as an ‘unusual background’.
After qualifying as both a pharmacist and lawyer, and
subsequently working in a number of different organisations
including Baker and McKenzie (a top international law firm),
I accepted my dream job in an overseas, senior leadership
position. Nevertheless, after many years spending time on
numerous planes and having lived and visited more cities and
countries than I care to remember, I decided to return home
and embark on a ‘sea change’. But what should I do?
“My family stepped in with a plan. My parents and sister
work together in a practice for children primarily with literacy-
based special needs. They joke that it was only a matter of
time before I returned to the fold. My father is a psychologist
who was one of the founders of SPELD (Specific Learning
Difficulties Association), now a national charity. My mother is a
special education teacher and my sister is also a psychologist.
They suggested I retrain as a speech pathologist so that we
could work together in a multidisciplinary context. I did some
research and contacted Dr Elisabeth Harrison, the convener of
the Masters program at Macquarie University. I asked if I could
have a chat with her the next time I was in the country and she
obliged. I then made up my mind to undertake her program.
I’ve now been practising in Sydney for two years.
“I thought I’d left my old world behind but a new initiative,
significant to speech pathologists, has allowed me to marry my
past with my future in a way that assists the most vulnerable in
our community, being our children.
“I first heard of this initiative while reading Speak Out. The
article discussed an upcoming pilot program to be trialled
in Sydney and Newcastle for allied health care professionals
(psychologists, social workers, OTs and speech pathologists)
to work as witness intermediaries with children who have been
sexually abused, by assisting them to communicate with both
the police and the courts. I applied to the Department of Justice
and was fortunate to be selected. Wow, my two worlds just
collided.
“Witness intermediaries are, in the first instance, requested
by police to informally assess the communication skills of the
child. Witness intermediaries then discuss the assessment
results and make suggestions to police on how best to facilitate
communication when they conduct their interviews. The
interviews are taped and are later replayed in court.
“Detective Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans, APM, who is
attached to the NSW Police Child Abuse Squad, reports that
After a career as a lawyer and a pharmacist Julia Martin travelled a new path
into speech pathology and discovered that her new role married her old life with
her new.
Multidisciplinary career path