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34 Speak Out December 2016
Branch News
WA 865
members
as at October 2016
WA
Speech Pathology in the Pilbara
An innovative Curtin University– Martu initiative
The innovative Jiji Program (Martu word for “little children”) began
in the Pilbara in the remote Aboriginal communities of Punmu and
Jigalong in May 2016. Curtin University and leaders of the Martu
Community embarked on this partnership together. Each site hosted
an intrepid speech pathology and occupational therapy supervisor,
as well as four adventurous final-year speech pathology and
occupational therapy students.
Three blocks of five-week residential placements occurred between
May and October, and an inter-professional team model was set
up. The program was based upon a similar successful model at
Challis Primary School in Perth, using student-led service delivery,
and where pre- and post-intervention outcomes indicated significant
child health, academic and social improvements. The principles of
community based rehabilitation were also woven into our ways of
working.
The program, initially funded for two years, aims to:
• improve Martu children’s health and education access,
• build the capacity of parents and teachers,
• engage the communities in their own health care, by working
with families and their kids together,
• help build potential future recruitment of health professionals to
remote areas,
• collaborate with and support existing allied health service
providers in the region.
We spent time getting to know the community, and heard about
what help families wanted for their kids. We worked with kids and
their families at their homes, in the community and on country.
We also worked at the community schools and provided in-class
support and professional development to the teaching staff.
Preliminary results were exciting and highly promising.
The final-year students rose to the challenges of desert life and
experienced immense personal and professional growth over
the course of their placement in the Martu community. Students
reflected on, to name a few, the development in their understanding
of Martu culture, the complexities and barriers that Aboriginal people
can face in accessing a westernised health care system, and their
heightened awareness of culturally safe service provision.
As supervisors it was a privilege to be a part of the evolution of
this project and live in community, form special relationships with
community members, watch clients progress, and to witness the
transformation in the students as they prepare to head out into the
workforce.
Victoria Bishop
Speech Pathologist
Annie Carruthers
Speech Pathologist