Speak Out June 2017

Tasmania

Tasmanian Branch welcome event In early May, the Tasmanian Branch held two simultaneous social events, one in the north and one in the south of the state, to welcome all new speech pathologists as well as any other SLPs who wanted to come and find out more about what was happening within the Branch. Collectively we had over 20 people attend, which is over one-fifth of our membership (wow – nice job Tassie speechies!). In our state there is nothing that says “welcome” like a glass of wine next to an open fire! Thanks to everyone who supported this event and a special thank you to those members who came to the meeting beforehand for the first time. We hope to see you again. Branch meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month and are video- conferenced across the four major hospitals in the state. Kiara Hyland, Hannah Kelly, Nat Bown, Janine Hart, Steph Mills, Isobel Lewis and Ally Mok.

TAS 109 members as at April 2017

Keeping it plain! The Tasmanian Branch is a proud official supporter of the state government’s 26TEN Adult Literacy initiative. 26TEN represents the 26 letters of the alphabet and 10 numbers – the tools for literacy. Some SPA Tasmanian branch members attended a breakfast recently as part of Plain English Awareness Month where a number of prominent people from the legal profession, including former High Court Justice Michael Kirby spoke about the importance of using language that is accessible to all people in our society. The Tasmanian Education Department’s speech pathologists have recently adopted using plain English for their report writing and although this transition has been challenging at times (especially writing in the first person!), much positive feedback has been received. They would be keen to hear from any other speech pathology departments across the country which have also switched to using plain English as their preferred communication style. Please email linda.williams@education.tas.gov.au

For when we can’t be face to face Have you “liked” our Facebook page “where does speech pathology fit into your life?” If not jump online and check it out! There are lots of posts highlighting the diverse scope of our practice as well as information about some state-specific events. For Tasmanian members there is also the Facebook group page set up by National Office. Just search for Tasmania Branch Member Community on Facebook and hit the Request to Join button.

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June 2017 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out