SP 2030 Report

5. SKILLED AND CONFIDENT FAMILIES AND CARERS

O ur roles extend beyond the services we provide to individuals with communication or eating and drinking difficulties. Our role in building the capacity of our clients’ families, friends and carers can be as equally important as they shape and sustain their relationships with their loved ones and support their communication, eating and drinking goals. Often the whole family is on a shared journey and we know their role makes a big difference to how things unfold. We will ensure families, friends and carers have access to appropriate knowledge and support, and will recognise their needs are connected to, but also unique and separate from, those of the client. To achieve this we will invest time to understand each family and relevant family member’s story, including their goals, strengths, capacity and needs, as well as their preferred ways of doing things. We will integrate this knowledge into how we support and respond to the goals of our clients. We will make sure families, friends and carers have access to all the information they seek and need and will take time to build their knowledge about the nature of their family member’s communication, eating or drinking difficulties, the impact of the disorder, and practical ways to provide support consistent with client goals and readily incorporated into daily life. We will build the capacity of our entire workforce to understand and successfully work with the families, friends and communities of people who are recognised as experiencing greater vulnerability, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities; families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who have recently migrated to Australia or arrived seeking asylum; and those who experience significant poverty and disadvantage. We are increasingly aware professional services can only ever be part of the picture in responding to the needs of families, friends and carers. The chance to connect with others who share similar experiences can offer valuable assistance, advice and support. We will help establish systems of family support, facilitate links between individual families with similar needs, and increase awareness of opportunities to engage with local face-to-face groups, and online support mechanisms within and beyond Australia. We recognise families and other support people often undertake the unfamiliar and complex task of case management and advocacy, scheduling and liaising with a wide range of different services. We will collaborate to develop service systems to simplify and streamline this process, with the goal of reducing personal and financial costs. Just as we work holistically to support our clients’ goals and aspirations, we will apply this perspective to their families and others who support them. We will be alert to their overall well- being and ensure their access to relevant services.

In our clients’ words:

“

“My family tries to double or triple up on our therapy experience. Mum, dad, grandparents, extended family all try to attend sessions at various times. We try to engage the whole family because we’ve found over the years that while sessions bring about small spikes in understanding, the real change happens on a day to day basis. We’re all involved and we feel like mini speech pathologists!” “More support is needed at the start. A mentoring program would be good with parents who have older children (like me) supporting the parents of a 3-year-old to say ‘this is the journey we’ve been on’.” “I’d love it if my son and I could go to a centre that would be all about the love of language and communication. There would be people who were inspired and relating in a fun way….I’d love to go every day for 1 hour and work on his language with all the books and games and computers and equipment and someone would come around like a gym instructor to coach you...a focus on developing a community of parents.”

“One-on-one practice at home can be quite isolating and overwhelming.”

”

“There’s so much power in a support group.”

19

Speech Pathology 2030 - making futures happen