Speak Out Dec 2016

Branch News

Speech Pathology in the Pilbara An innovative Curtin University– Martu initiative

WA

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.

WA 865 members as at October 2016

Victoria Bishop Speech Pathologist Annie Carruthers Speech Pathologist

34

December 2016 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out