Speak Out OCTOBER 2021 DIGITAL EDITION

1359 members

BRANCH NEWS Western Australia

WA Branch Rural and Remote Representative Adele Houghton discusses the challenges faced when working across rural settings especially with NDIS and supporting speechies. Working in rural and remote locations

Adele moved to Geraldton, the year after she graduated, for a six-month contract, and is still there five years later. I enjoy being a part of a small community, and in hearing the stories from clients who have also made the community their home. The speech pathology caseload in a regional town is varied, and it is this variety that makes working rurally attractive as a career." However, working rurally comes with its challenges. The network of speech pathologists is spread out across the entire state (over 2.5 million kilometres). Of note, the network of speech pathologists working rurally is growing with the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) into the state. While a positive, the combination of distance and the cost of travel meant that the opportunity to develop a network and attend face-to-face workshops has become even more challenging. As more of what we do moves to a virtual platform, in April 2021 I facilitated a virtual discussion session as an opportunity to network, share ideas and receive support. Given the increase in disability services in rural and remote areas, this session focused on providing disability services and working with NDIS clients. Ruyi Tong (representative from the WA Disability/NDIS portfolio) and Erin West (SPA Professional Practice Advisor) also attended to share their knowledge with the group. The attendees dialed in from across the state, and across backgrounds including private practice, government organisations, and clinical education. The group discussed the challenges of transitioning to NDIS services in regional areas where there aren’t many NDIS providers yet. Many members of the group had creative ways of providing services to these consumers, including group therapy, parent/carer training and support, and telepractice. Erin kindly provided links to an extensive range of resources on the SPA website focused on providing telehealth services.

All members of the group also identified the long history of speech pathologists in regional areas being early in their career, and that these clinicians are often working in isolation and supported remotely, sometimes by members of a different discipline. An exciting future plan within the rural and remote portfolio is to establish a rural and remote community of practice for speech pathologists working or interested in rural health. This will be an opportunity for members to share their successes, get advice for their challenges, and build a supportive network of speech pathologists from around the state. If you are looking for more information or guidance on working in rural health within a WA context, please contact Adele adelesimone88@gmail.com . If you would like further information or a local go-to person from the WA branch related to local supports that are related to the disability/NDIS, please contact Ruyi via the branch email wabranch@speechpathologyaustralia.org.au.

Ruyi Tong

Adele Houghton

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Speak Out | October 2021