Speak Out April 2013

From our President

T his year is a particularly important one for Speech Pathology Australia. The first months of the year have been an absolute hive of activity as many of our larger projects enter their final stages. Concurrently, our sustained lobbying efforts of the past three years have also begun to bear fruit on several fronts. This has provided tremendous opportunities for dialogue with politicians and policy makers and exciting new project opportunities such as the SPyce youth justice pilot. message that ‘communication is a basic human right’. The sobering statistics about the scale of disadvantage confronted by those who cannot access appropriate speech pathology services speak for themselves. We have had significant success in getting this message across to the broader community and to the media. It has been extremely gratifying to see their response as they truly understand the powerful difference speech pathologists make to the lives of everyday Australians with communication and swallowing difficulties, and to see them take up the challenge on our behalf to advocate for greater access to services for our clients. The common strand uniting all our externally focused activities is advocacy for Australians experiencing communication and swallowing difficulties. We have deliberately distilled our campaigning and lobbying material to emphasise simple, powerful messages which we repeat We are also beginning to get very meaningful traction with the simple

frequently and support with robust data. This strategy underpins our planning for Speech Pathology Week and for our international year of action and advocacy on behalf of our clients and consumers. You’ll find much more information in this edition as we prepare to ‘start the conversation’ around communication disability in Australia and internationally. Many more of the projects and activities the Association is involved in are detailed within. But, as always, there is simply so much going on it is impossible to cover everything. I do hope that many of you are planning to join us at our National Conference on the Gold Coast in June. Along with speakers presenting the latest research, the AGM is a fantastic opportunity to hear more about the Association’s many achievements and to celebrate the tremendous successes of our award winners. At this year's AGM we will also be asking you to vote on our proposed new Constitution which has been the focus of so much work over the past two years. I hope to see as many of you as possible in person but please remember that if you are unable to attend you may forward a proxy vote. Please note, the AGM is a stand alone event open to all members, conference registration is NOT a requirement for attendance. Make sure you have your say about the future of our Association.

Until next time...

Chris Stone National President

Speak Out April 2013

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