Speak Out June 2021

Branch News

Changes to practice as a result of COVID-19

South Australia

At the beginning of the pandemic, our practic, Good Prospects, successfully transitioned to being a full telehealth practice and managed to avoid needing to engage with the Job Keeper program. A highlight of this time also was hosting a final roster student who was stuck in Singapore. This was a full telehealth placement hosted by two speech pathologists in rural South Australia, so effectively a country placement without being there. This was believed to be a first with Flinders University and something that could be considered as a student hosting option ongoing into the future. This placement will be presented at the 2021 Speech Pathology Australia conference on the Tuesday afternoon. Other ongoing changes which will be maintained include people using telehealth if they are showing any COVID-19 symptoms but are not unwell enough to take sick leave. This maintains therapy for the client and income for the practice. The other benefit has been the range of therapy options which are now an active part of a speech pathologists resource kit such as the use of Boom cards and other internet-based resources such as ELR. Diana Bleby Director and Principal Speech Pathologist Good Prospects Speech Pathology & Psychology

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Speak Out | June 2021