18 Speak Out
August 2014
Speech Pathology Australia
2014 national conference news
The Conference Planning Committee (CPC)
was
delighted to welcome over 760 attendees to Melbourne for
connections: client.clinician.context
.
connections: client.clinician.context
was a busy hub
of activity in central Melbourne with delegates having the
opportunity to attend keynotes and clinical and research
paper presentations across the range of practice areas that
triangulated the key concepts of the clinician, the client, and
the therapeutic context.
Master Classes
Professor Sue Roulstone started the Conference week
presenting her masterclass “A ‘life-sentence’ of intervention or
targeted support?: Designing outcome-based interventions
in speech-language pathology” to a large and keen audience.
Participants engaged in animated discussions with many key
and pertinent questions raised.
Dr Susan Langmore followed with an equally large and
interested audience with her presentation on “How to predict
and prevent aspiration pneumonia in patients with dysphagia”.
Again the audience raised pertinent clinical questions and
participated in many and varied discussions.
The masterclasses were very well received with discussions
continuing on into the Conference week. A number of
delegates attended both sessions highlighting the esteem in
which both presenters are held.
Opening Address
Hanna Mitchell
, speech pathologist,
had the audience in tears and
received a standing ovation for
describing her difficult and
courageous experience as a survivor
of stroke. Hanna’s ability to provide
incredible insights from the perspective of both a speech
pathologist and of an individual receiving rehabilitation
resonated strongly with the audience. Discussion of
Hanna’s presentation continued throughout the week and
one suspects, will continue long into the future.
Keynote and Invited Presenters
Professor Sue Roulstone
’s keynote
presentation “Exploring the relationship
between client perspectives, clinical
expertise, and research evidence” was an
excellent start to the Conference ensuring
that the audience was immediately
enmeshed with the Conference theme.
Professor Roulstone outlined the methodical work that she
and her colleagues completed across a number of years,
work that provided many insights into the client and family’s
perspective of intervention and that raised questions regarding
the evidence base of our current interventions.
Professor Jacinta Douglas
, the
invited presenter of the 2014 Elizabeth
Usher Memorial Lecture, presented an
outstanding talk taking the audience
on an exploration of the impact of
communication disorder on the
individual. Key was the impact on self
– that communication is a stressful experience for those
with communication impairment, the importance and need
to reconstruct one’s self following communication loss/
impairment, and placing therapy in the context of self – that is,
understand the person from their own perspective. Professor
Douglas’ presentation had everyone riveted from start to
end and garnered endless positive reports, facilitating much
discussion on this core concept.
Dr Susan Langmore
’s keynote address
reminded delegates of the importance of
seeking an evidence base for dysphagia
practice whilst her workshop explored
her use of FEES in the evaluation and
treatment of dysphagia. Dr Langmore’s
clinical and research experience enabled
her to pertinently discuss the literature whilst always remaining
focused on the clients that we support – a useful reminder for
all clinicians.
I would like to extend a very big thank you to the Board of
Speech Pathology Australia and National Office staff for their
ongoing support and advice during the Conference planning
period.
Posters
There was an impressive array of 45 posters on display during
the Conference. These were universally well received and
represented a very diverse range of clinical and research
topics. Many poster authors were engaged in deep discussion
during the formal poster sessions.
18–21 May, 2014
Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne, Australia
