Speak Out December 2017

LASA Congress The Leading Aged Services Association (LASA) Congress was held on the Gold Coast on 15-17 October. Jess Hayward SPA Aged Care Project Officer, and Amanda Dansky SPA Aged Care Working Party, attended to raise awareness about the role of speech pathology in ageing and aged care via a marketing pod. Across the three days, we had several interested service providers, academics and businesses asking questions and taking away flyers about speech pathology. The “Communication Matters” DVD was on loop with lots of chat about the importance of communication assessment and supports in aged care. Overall it was a successful awareness activity. A special thankyou to Amanda Dansky for volunteering her time for the event.

Advocacy in aged care DVA and Stroke Alliance In October and November, the SPA aged care team attended National Stroke Coalition and Department Veteran Affairs (DVA) Health Consultative Forum meetings. These meetings provided an opportunity to advocate and highlight the role of speech pathology in older people post stroke or for those who receive care under DVA. Key updates in the area of stroke include: • Work is being undertaken to roll out the tele-stroke program nationally. This provides a network of neurologists and stroke specialists to provide assessment and intervention through telemedicine including educating staff and family using scans and images in a “flip around” screen. • New stroke guidelines were launched during Stroke Week. The guidelines are online via InformMe and summary documents for health care professionals and consumers have been developed with more specific discipline (medical, nursing and allied health) guidelines to follow. From DVA: The review of allied health and dental service continues. The DVA is focused on improving both provider and veteran engagement through DVA transformation projects and co-design of services. Feedback was provided regarding the delay in approval of DVA services for speech pathologists. Members are encouraged to continue to alert SPA to these issues so as we can continue to give feedback to DVA. Members are encouraged to sign up to the DVA Provider e-newsletter here: http://dva.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u =3e65ae0f3ef290709fbe2617b&id=f18b81395b

Aged Care Working Party

The SPA Aged Care Working Party held its last meeting in Melbourne in November. The working party had a day of collaborative brain storming and planning for future activities and advocacy relating to speech pathology in aged care. Facebook Ageing and Aged Care Member Community Be sure to join the SPA Ageing and Aged Care Facebook member community page. Latest aged care information, articles and resources are shared regularly and it’s a great way to network and share with other speech pathologist’s in the aged care sector.

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December 2017 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out