Speak Out OCTOBER 2019 V3 DIGITAL EDITION

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the introduction of colour), the Association has become an active player in the social media sphere. Today, the Association has more than 10,700 followers on Twitter, more than 6,000 followers on Instagram, and more than 4,700 followers on LinkedIn - proof, if any was required, that speech pathologists understand the need to remain agile and adaptive to the introduction of new technologies as a means of communication. Over the course of the last 10 years members have seen the growth in the use of video, podcasts and webinars by the Association to deliver information to members and the wider community. Publicity comes in many forms. On Boxing Day 2010, the Academy Award winning film, The King’s Speech was released in Australia, putting Lionel Logue, stuttering, and the speech pathology profession “front-and-centre” in the public eye. Indeed, many of the Association’s Branch’s used the occasion to hold special screenings of the movie to raise money for the Speak Easy Association. While Dr Caroline Bowen AM was also honoured for her historical work concerning Lionel Logue and was invited to Canberra to visit the Australian National Archive to view Lionel Logue’s personal papers, including some of his notes and diaries. National Inquiry In August 2010, the Association’s then National President, Christine Stone, outlined that one of the Association’s, “key objectives is to influence and inform government policy on all matters relevant to communication and swallowing difficulties”. An objective that would dominate the Association’s advocacy agenda over the following years. At this time a central focus of the Association’s advocacy agenda was the conduct of a national inquiry into the availability of speech pathology services, “including the social and economic impact of speech disorders, projected future service demands and the identification of service gaps”. In 2012 the Association was able to progress its call for a national inquiry when it had the opportunity to address the Australian Senate’s Community Affairs Reference Committee on the need for such an investigation. The Association was eventually successful with the Australian Senate’s Community Affairs Reference Committee conducting a national inquiry, throughout 2014, into the “Prevalence of different types of speech, language and communication disorders and speech

speaking to the tabling of the report, noted that “before I start on outlining some of those recommendations and our findings, I want to make sure that I have time to acknowledge the work that Speech Pathology Australia has put into this inquiry”. It was strong confirmation of the significance of the inquiry to the Association. Indeed, the inquiry provided the platform for many and various conversations with ministers, shadow ministers, departmental officials and other key stakeholders. Today, it remains a very useful reference point. NDIS Around the same time as the Association was making submissions about a national inquiry, it was also keeping “watchful eye” on the creation of a new government initiative – the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Initially rolled out from 1 July 2013 in specific locations, the NDIS’s implementation has remained a central focus of the Association’s advocacy and policy agenda. The introduction of the NDIS has not been smooth and the Association has – on a number of occasions – had to go “into bat” to strongly advocate on behalf of members’ interests and those of their clients. The Association has made numerous submissions on matters pertinent to the NDIS and/or NDIA, provided input on clinical guidelines and other documentation, and raised directly with relevant ministers, state and federal, on matters impacting directly on the businesses and practices operated by members. Regulation In 2008, the Council of Australian Governments formed an intergovernmental agreement for a National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the Health Professions, with the scheme to commence in July 2010. As a partially registered profession at that time (with registration in Queensland), in consultation with the profession as a whole, the Association actively pursued an agenda to have speech pathology included in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS). A formal submission and campaign was mounted in 2008, and while the formal submission was rejected on the perceived assessment of a low risk of speech pathology services not outweighing the cost of registration, the profession has continued to argue that the public deserves protection and assurances across all health professions. The unintended consequences of a profession not being included in NRAS has also been reinforced. While the Association continued to make its case for inclusion in the scheme, the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council announced in 2012 that no further professions were to be considered for inclusion until there had been further investigation of the future direction of national registration of the unregistered professions. Despite more recent reviews of NRAS, and the Association's continuted position for inclusion, there remains limited likelihood, at this time, that the government will extend registration to a broader range of professions, including speech pathology. Meanwhile, the National Alliance of Self Regulating Health Professions (NASRHP) was formed in 2008 as an informal alliance under the auspices of Allied Health Professions Australia. NASRHP has now evolved to be an independent body that provides a framework for self-regulating health professions in Australia, and

pathology services in Australia”. Once the inquiry was underway, the Association made a formal written submission in the form of a 116 page document and followed this up by addressing one of the committee’s public hearings. On 2 September 2014, the Community Affairs Reference Committee tabled its final report in the Australian Senate; and for 35 minutes, communication disability and the value of speech pathology

were “front-and-centre” in the national parliament as Senators spoke to the importance of the inquiry and its recommendations. Senator Rachel Siewert, the Chair of the committee, in

Senator Rachel Siewert.

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October 2019 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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