JCPSLP Vol 23 Issue 2 2021

Implementation science

Evidence matters Cori Williams

I n this issue of JCPSLP we are pleased to introduce a new regular section—Evidence matters. There is no question that EBP should be at the heart of our professional lives. This is embedded across Association documents—the Professional Standards, the Code of Ethics and EBP for speech pathologists in Australia. This new section will cover a range of evidence-related areas, introduce a summary of new intervention evidence listed on SpeechBite and incorporate the columns What’s the evidence and Around the journals. As we move to something a little new in our focus on evidence, let’s take a short look back at the place of evidence in JCPSLP and the profession in general through the eyes (and words) of previous editors. The place of evidence Jane McCormack and Anna Copley, 2013–2014 The senate inquiry into “Prevalence of different types of speech, language and communication disorders and speech pathology services in Australia” took place in early 2014 to explore the prevalence of communication and swallowing needs and provision/adequacy of services for addressing these needs. This raised awareness of communication and swallowing difficulties within the community and the role of the speech pathologists in working with individuals and families who had these needs. Given this increased awareness, during our tenure, we decided to focus on issues that we saw as relevant and timely for SLPs, but with a focus on how we deliver best practice. David Trembath, 2014–2016 What struck me about submissions was how much people wanted to be working at the cutting edge of current practice, reflected in numerous accounts of innovative service delivery models that were being trialled in practice. It seemed that the research was attempting to keep up with the innovation, rather than necessarily driving it. This may be something for us to consider as a field. Are we preparing our future colleagues with the skills to not only find, critically appraise, and apply research evidence, but to also use research and design methods that can underpin the design (including co-design), development, and implementation of novel practices? For this, we may need to think more about methods used in industrial design, engineering, and creative arts that help to systematically build models/services/ products that people want and that work. I was impressed to see multidisciplinary teams and some co-design in the authorship teams for various articles submitted to JCPLSP but wondered why we did not see more collaboration outside of health disciplines. The most progressive ideas and innovations are likely to come from cross-discipline collaboration, well beyond health to also

include the arts, social sciences, law, business, and others. At a basic level this would see us infusing elements of these disciplines into existing projects and their reporting (e.g., cost–benefit analyses including in some JCPSLP manuscripts), but the more exciting prospect is that such collaborations will lead to ways of thinking and working that will transcend our cumbersome discipline boundaries. Leigha Dark, 2016–2018, July 2020– March 2021 The Speech Pathology Australia 2030 Futures Report was launched on 11 August 2016. Within the profession, and increasingly reflected in the submissions coming in to JCPSLP from this time, was a greater commitment to demonstrating how clinical, research, education, advocacy and community capacity-building activities aligned with the aspirations and priority areas outlined in the report. In particular, increased emphasis was placed on (a) communication accessible environments and access to services, (b) innovative approaches to workforce planning including exploration of emerging roles, service models and work settings, (c) ways to facilitate meaningful collaboration and partnership between clients, clinicians, and communities, and (d) building the speech pathology evidence base. In the context of individualised funding models across sectors such as aged care and disability, there was considerable focus on identification of new opportunities, design and implementation of new responsive approaches, measurement of outcomes at individual, service and community levels, reflection and refinement, and sharing of findings and experience through I aimed to deliver Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contents in each issue. I wanted the journal to be able to publish articles written by, for and about Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients with communication and swallowing difficulties—as I believed this would generate discussions and encourage reflections on what EBP means in Australia. I think there is a need to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speech pathologists and researchers. One challenge was sourcing the manuscripts that specifically address the chosen topic of the journal issue— and deciding on the issue topic was a challenge. If the topic is too broad then having a topic is somewhat meaningless; but if the topic is too narrow then there may not be sufficient submissions. JCPSLP and technology During 2017 JCPSLP transitioned from an email-based manuscript submission system to an integrated online various knowledge translation activities Jae Hyun-Kim 2018–2019

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JCPSLP Volume 23, Number 2 2021

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology