JCPSLP Vol 17 Supplement 1 2015_lores

Ethics

Editorial

T he Ethics Board has produced an ethics supplement containing all the articles in JCPSLP written by members of the Ethics Board and colleagues over the past decade. For almost 10 years, Ethics Board members, professional colleagues, community members and National Office staff have been contributing to the body of knowledge about speech pathology practice and the national Code of Ethics that binds all members. The Ethics Board has increasingly strengthened its commitment to member education in a variety of ways taking a pro-active and educative approach to ethical practice, ethical dilemmas, ethical problems and decision- making for all members. This includes those who are newly graduated as well as more experienced clinicians, academics and researchers who have developed a repertoire of strategies to deal with ethical problems in the workplace. One of the primary goals of the Ethics Board is to respond to questions about ethics and develop education and training materials for members. To this end, the Ethics Board undertakes a workshop every year at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, which always has full attendance and stimulating debate. Following the 2010 revision of the Code of Ethics, the Board has recently revised and significantly updated the Ethics Education Package and developed a work book for members. Both the package and the workbook can be downloaded from the Speech Pathology Australia website and members can undertake activities, read theory, participate in team discussions and record their work. Work undertaken in the Ethics Education Package will be eligible for Professional Self-Regulation (PSR) points. In addition, the Board contributes a regular article or column to the JCPSLP (or the ACQ as it was known until a few years ago). The Ethics Board has decided to aggregate all the articles written over the last decade into a single ethics supplement so that members can use this as an easy resource to add to the educational material available to them. The Ethics Board understands that leaders who want to establish a practice of positive workplace ethics within their organisations should develop written ethics standards, provide ethics training and ensure that resources are available to staff who need advice or find themselves in ethical dilemmas. Speech Pathology Australia is at the forefront of this approach in developing a strong aspirational

approach to ethics, a robust national Code of Ethics, comprehensive training material and a number of places where dialogue, debate and questions about ethics can be raised and discussed in a safe and constructive way. Speech pathology is a comprehensive discipline that has a number of self-regulation functions built into the structure and function of the membership body. Speech Pathology Australia’s reputation in dealing with ethical issues is growing and is seen as sustainable within the communities and sectors within which we operate. The Ethics Board uses a number of different fora to ensure that there is open and legitimate debate about ethical issues and that members and the community have avenues to raise areas of concern. The fact that we have a published set of procedures that are clearly defined and transparent engages members and the community to trust the Association in our ability to manage complaints and to ensure continued self-regulation. The Ethics Board provides frameworks for members whereby they can consider how they make ethical decisions, what assistance they might need and how to develop a self learning approach to the application of ethics in standards, practice and behaviours. We hope that you find this ethics supplement to be an accessible resource that you can draw on in your own reflective practice, whatever your stage of your professional journey. Dr Suze Leitão , Chair Ethics Board, and Christina Wilson , Senior Advisor Professional Issues (2010–2014)

Dr Suze Leitão (top) and Christina Wilson

Author correspondence The articles in this supplement have been published previously in different issues of JCPSLP and thus the author correspondence details may have changed. If you are unable to contact an author, please contact the Senior Advisor Ethics and Professional Issues at National Office: tjohnson@speechpathologyaustralia. org.au

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JCPSLP Volume 17, Supplement 1, 2015 – Ethical practice in speech pathology

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology