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agm overview and awards

Community Contribution Award The Community Contribution Award is granted by the Association to recognise external representatives and agencies who have made a significant and valuable contribution to speech pathology. The award is open to any agency or individual outside of speech pathology that has contributed to the promotion of the profession. This year the award is presented to Dr Arthur Rallis.

Dr Arthur Rallis Dr Arthur Rallis is a qualified solicitor who is currently the principal of his own legal and consulting practice in Melbourne. Arthur’s practice focuses on matters related to the health industry. He also holds a dual qualification of

JCPSLP editor Jane McCormack (far left) and ACER representative Julia Inglis (far right) presented the Editor’s Prize to authors Toni Seiler and Suze Leitão at the 2014 SPA AGM.

a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Melbourne which gives him some unique insights in to the nature of health care services provided by speech pathologists. Arthur is nominated for this award in recognition of his significant and valuable contribution to the practice and profession of speech pathology over a long period of time. Whilst Arthur is a paid consultant, it is recognised that he contributes extensive expertise and effort in developing robust and trusting relationships with speech pathology staff and volunteers in order to assist in the development of sound, rational and fair actions that benefit the organisation, members and consumers. Arthur has a longstanding interest and affection for the profession of speech pathology, and this high regard and respect for the profession is reflected in the time he invests to fully research issues and allow for constructive discussion about options and outcomes. His background in medicine results in a broad knowledge and understanding of health professions and the services they provide. Arthur enjoys his working relationship with us. Arthur’s professional behaviour mirrors the values underpinning our Code of Ethics (Integrity, Professionalism, Respect and Care, Quality Standards and Continuing Competence). He is empathic in manner and shows a genuine concern for achieving best practice outcomes for all parties, while making sure that Speech Pathology Australia applies due diligence to its procedures and processes in the management and investigation of alleged breaches of the Code of Ethics and complaints. Arthur is generous with his time and knowledge. The work that Arthur provides, which is mainly ‘behind the scenes’ support, has made an ongoing and valuable contribution to the profession as a whole over a significant time period. His work influences the services we provide to both the profession and the public as consumers of our work, and allows us to be more confident about the legal underpinnings and natural justice behind our interpretation of our Code of Ethics as it guides our professional practice.

JCPSLP Editor's Prize awarded at SPA AGM

Each year , a prize is awarded to an article published in the Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology ( JCPSLP ) in the preceding 12 months, which is judged by the JCPSLP Editorial Committee to be of highest research merit. This year, the prize was awarded to Toni Seiler, Suze Leitão and Mara Blosfelds for their paper titled, “ The effectiveness of a computer-supported intervention targeting orthographic processing and phonological recoding for children with impaired word identification: A preliminary study ”. Their paper reported on a study investigating the effectiveness of a computer-supported intervention for three children with persistent word identification impairment. All participants made clinically significant gains in accuracy of nonword reading from pre- to post- intervention, and demonstrated mixed results with word and nonword reading efficiency. Further studies are being conducted to explore the effectiveness of the program with a larger number of participants. The editors of JCPSLP , the editorial committee and publication team congratulate Toni and colleagues on their research and the award, which is based on four criteria: evidence base, clinical relevance, novel contribution, and writing style and readability. The prize was again sponsored by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), and presented at the AGM on the first night of the SPA National Conference. We thank ACER for their ongoing support of the award. Anna Copley and Jane McCormack Co-Editors, JCPSLP

14 Speak Out August 2014

Speech Pathology Australia