Speak Out Digital Edition June 2016

Speech Pathology 2030

“What will you start doing now that will enable your vision for the future of 2030 to be realised?”

A vision to aspire to…

The A vision to aspire to workshop at the SPA National Conference was the final consultation activity for the Speech Pathology 2030 project. The brief was for an inspirational workshop and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

More than 100 speech pathologists, from all around the country, were ably led through a range of activities by Project Manager and Lead Consultant, Gretchen Young. Each workshop activity focused on seeking feedback on the draft ideas for the future of the speech pathology profession in Australia that have snapshots of future possibilities: Working together to embrace big data; Diversifying the workforce; Changing funding landscapes and service delivery models; The growth of precision medicine; Virtual learning, communication and social robotics and The universal right to communication access. The snapshots provided a powerful tool for exploring and testing the draft ideas for the future vision and firming up our shared aspirations. Participants were then invited to consider the draft vision from the perspectives of others— clients, communities, funders, policy makers, been gathered through the project so far. The workshop began by considering six

other professionals, and, an early career speech pathologist in 2030. I don’t know about others, but this activity certainly gave me goose bumps and brought the future to life. Imagine, some of our new graduate speech pathologists of 2030 are just six or seven years old today and will bring a whole new set of skills and experiences to our profession. The workshop concluded with a reminder that the future is actually about the present and begins with acting today. We wrapped things up by answering the question: “What will you start doing now that will enable your vision for the future of 2030 to be realised?” I urge each of you to not only answer this question, but also to act on your answer. The final stage of the project will culminate in Speech Pathology week with the launch of the report; Speech Pathology 2030 – making futures

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June 2016 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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