Speak Out Feb 2020 DIGITAL EDITION. pdf

Association news

Celebrating the highlights of 2019

What a year it was for Speech Pathology Australia!

Record-breaking membership At the close of 2019, the membership of Speech Pathology Australia stood at 9832, with the 10,000 member barrier beckoning.

Join us as we celebrate the achievements of members, the Association and industry partners.

70 years young In 2019, Speech Pathology Australia celebrated its 70th birthday. On 22 November 1949, the Australian College of Speech Therapists met for the first time as an unincorporated body. That has led to 70 years of service and support for the speech pathology profession in

Book of the Year Five books and their author/illustrators were celebrated as part of the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year 2019 awards, held at the State Library of Victoria. Slightly over 200 books were nominated across the five categories in 2019. Harrison Craig, the winner of the Australian TV series The Voice (2013), was the Association’s guest speaker at the 2019 awards. Professional development

Australia. Celebrations included a podcast with the Association’s Chief Executive Officer, Gail Mulcair; a video interview with Mary Buttifant (a member of the Association of over 61 years), and the release of a 70th anniversary poster, lapel pin and keep-cup. Reconciliation Action Plan The Association submitted its Reconciliation Acton Plan to Reconciliation Australia in May 2019, receiving conditional endorsement and later secured formal endorsement on 8 November 2019. The formal endorsement and public release of the Association’s RAP was delayed by the completion of artwork commissioned by the Association as part of the RAP’s development. This artwork now hangs proudly in the Association's Board Room.

Dr Julie Cichero presented a sell out 2019 Speech Pathology Australia National Tour, around two workshops: ‘Paediatric dysphagia: The A-Z of the IDDSI Framework, fussy eating and medication administration in babies and children’, and ‘Improving the lives of adults living with dysphagia’. Joint Conference

The Association’s annual conference in June 2019 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre was a joint event with the New Zealand Speech-Language Therapists’ Association (NZSTA). The joint event was attended by over 970 delegates and was addressed by keynote speakers, Professors Susan Rvachew and Marian Brady, with Professor David Copland delivering the Association’s Elizabeth Usher Memorial lecture and Professor Suzanne Purdy presenting NZSTA’s Grace Gane Memorial Award lecture. Formal Apology On Monday 3 June, at the Joint Conference in Brisbane, the Association’s then National President, Gaenor Dixon delivered the Association’s Apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. The Association’s landmark Speech Pathology 2030 project

Reconciliation Action Plan June 2019 – June 2020

8

February 2020 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out