Speak Out December 2019 V2 DIGITAL EDITION

Aged care

Bernadette is Allied Health Australia's SPEECH PATHOLOGIST OF THE YEAR

BERNADETTE DUTTON WAS RECENTLY AWARDED SPEECH PATHOLOGIST OF THE YEAR AT THE AUSTRALIAN ALLIED HEALTH AWARDS.

Bernadette is the Director and Principal of Loqui Speech Pathology, a national aged care speech pathology service. She and her team have a strong focus on aged care workforce education, supporting mealtimes, enhancing communication and improving the lives of adults living with swallowing and communication disorders. She is a clinical and business mentor to speech pathologists and other allied health professionals, and a guest lecturer at the University of Queensland. She is also an active member and lead of the Lantern Project and on the Commonwealth Government - Nutrition and the Mealtime Experience Advisory Committee reviewing the national certificate III & IV in Aged Care. Congratulations Bernadette on your well-deserved recognition in the Australian Allied Health Awards as their 2019 Speech Pathologist of the Year. Can you tell us a little more about your journey in speech pathology so far including your experience, and about your current role? My eye-opening experience working with people with communication and swallowing difficulties in their homes started a new career path for me. After seven years working as a speech pathologist, I was exposed to working with adults living at home with communication and/ or swallowing difficulties. This experience improved my understanding of the realities of leaving hospital and managing communication and swallowing issues at home and set me on a path of supporting carers and clients within the realities of their resources, capabilities, supports and finances. I particularly enjoyed supporting and educating clients, their families and carers about dysphagia and communication in everyday life. Much of the home visit time was spent in client’s kitchens, assessing swallowing and demonstrating appropriate textured diets and thickened fluids. Community home visiting triggered my interest in improving the transition from hospital to home and dysphagia management and comfort eating and drinking in palliative care. I developed a network with other community speech pathologists in Brisbane and founded my own private practice. The caseload consisted of clients at home or in aged care with neurological conditions such as parkinsons, motor neuron disease, stroke and dementia. I worked closely with other allied health services to continue the focus on holistic team management. From here, I also developed an interest in food services and improving food and drink presentation for people with dysphagia. I have always enjoyed educating care, catering and food service teams on dysphagia, empowering them to be creative with meal preparation and presentation for people requiring a texture modified diet. In 2014 I launched Loqui Speech Pathology and employed our first team member.

My day to day activities are now focused on supporting a team of incredible speech pathologists, running a business, advocating for great speech pathology standards in aged care, quality improvement projects, consulting to food industry groups and providing education to aged care organisations. I am a collaborative member of the Lantern Project, who’s vision is to improve the quality of life for older Australians through the joy of food. I continue to enjoy taking clinical placements and guest lecturing on aged care at the University of Queensland (UQ). These are a wonderful opportunity to showcase the diversity of work available in aged care, thus exposing students to this very rewarding area of speech pathology. And I would acknowledge your very active volunteer contributions as a SPA member to professional activities – can you tell us a little more about some of those activities you have been involved in? Thank you, it is rewarding to work with other speech pathologists to collectively grow and challenge thinking. Recently, I was part of the SPA’s working party to develop the Association’s Informed Decision Making (Risk Feeding) Position Statement. I have been a supporter of the SPA Qld Branch for several years. In 2017 I facilitated the SPA QLD Advocacy Communication Matters Group that promoted the Communication Matters video produced by SPA – Western Australia Members, to QLD Aged Care Facilities. At the 2018 SPA National Conference, I was invited to speak on ‘Employing and Supporting Early Career Speech Pathologists’. Subsequently, I presented more in-depth workshops at four of the

21

December 2019 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out