Speak Out April 2021

From the President

Thanks for picking up (or clicking into) this edition of Speak Out magazine. I hope you’ve prepared a suitable beverage for this issue, as there’s a whole lot to update ourselves on here. In reading this edition, I’m getting flashbacks to this time I was qualifying as a student. I was really lucky in my clinical placements. I had fantastic clinical educators, who really inspired me. I couldn’t wait to get out in the real world, and become just like them. When it came to placement in aged care, it didn’t take me long to realise this area wasn’t going to be one in which I would ever excel. I still recall perching on the edge of my chair, nervously watching every tiny move a client made as he ate fish cakes. I recall hoping I was noting the right reactions and about to make the right suggestions. To this day I still tremble a little whenever I am confronted by an impending fish cake. However, my supervisor was brilliant. I really enjoyed watching her interacting so effortlessly with her clients, and her approach really formed the way I engage with my clients. Now, in listening to Kym Torresi and Nichola Gearon talking about the Aged Care Reform in the recent SpeakUp podcast, and then reading their perspectives and updates in this issue brings back these feelings of awe for me. Taking a human rights lens to Aged Care has the potential to lead to sweeping reforms, and as the professionals with communication rights firmly in our scope, there is so much potential for change. Kym and Nikki’s passion in this area reminds me of that of my supervisor’s, and even though it’s not within my own individual scope of practice, I am really looking forward to seeing what SPA members in this sector will achieve. If, like me, you’re also not working in Aged Care, I still urge you to read through these pages. If you do skip them, you might miss out on our exciting advances in the area. In fact, during the COVID-era, our advocacy efforts have been broad, scoping across a range of areas. A large focus for this issue, rightly, is on the advances that the Association has made across these

professional contexts. If you are motivated reading the progress we’re making across mental health, disability, and aged care, I double-dare you to make contact with your local Branch Chair and become involved yourself. This time last year, we were talking about how the SPA Conference was to be postponed in 2020. As speech pathologists, it’s irritating that we don’t have a semantic opposite for this word, such as "prepone", or "antepone"? We probably should get onto that. Whatever the word is, it’s time to start doing it for the 2021 SPA Conference. I’m gutted not to be able to travel to Darwin this year (it’s the only capital city I’ve not yet visited), but I’m taking heart from Bea Staley, Pamela Richards, and the Planning Committee’s meticulous planning of the conference. The sessions are thought- provoking, the keynote speakers inspiring, and great care has been taken to think about how best to get attendees together and interacting with one another. When the theme ‘Local Contexts, Global Practice’ was first agreed upon, little did we know how appropriate this would be in May 2021. But now I am preponing as much and as fast as I can for the launch on May 31. If you are reading this prior to April 14 and haven’t registered, flick straight away to that section of this issue. Finally, I hope that you enjoy the section on ‘Members at Work’ as much as I did. Clare Barbagallo’s piece on gender and sexuality within her work is a welcome contribution to Speak Out , just as Michelle Blowes’ investigation of the clinical practice guidelines for children with brain cancer or leukemia highlights the need for speech pathology in this area of practice. I’m hoping to read lots more of this type of article in the future. All the best for what amazing work you’re doing in your particular scope of practice, and hopefully you plan to tune into the Conference this May to be challenged and inspired by our growing profession. Pass the fish cakes!

Tim Kittel

Tim Kittel National President

4

Speak Out | April 2021