Speak Out OCTOBER 2021 DIGITAL EDITION

161 members

BRANCH NEWS TASMANIA

Profile Stephanie Mills Professional

Development Leader What brought you to Tasmania?

I moved to Hobart for a 12 month contract and am still here four years later! I love the lifestyle such as the proximity to nature, scenic views and short commute times. What do you love about being a SLP? I love that there’s such a range of clinical areas and settings we can contribute in. I feel confident this career will never bore me. What’s the best thing about your current role? I enjoy the indirect, health promotion work I do in a Child and Family Centre, which forms part of my role with the Department of Education.

What are your hobbies? I like going to parkrun on Saturdays. My favourites in Hobart are Risdon Brook parkrun and Bellerive parkrun. Tasmanian Branch planning day

Thank you to all members and SPA staff who attended the Tasmanian Branch Planning Day. The day was held in a central location and saw 14 members travel from all corners of Tasmania for the event. This constituted nearly 10% of all Tasmanian members! We were very lucky to host Tim Kittel in person, and were very thankful for Gail Mulcair attending from lock-down via Zoom. The day involved productive and honest discussion around the shifting focus for our local workforce, with the introduction of the UTAS Speech Pathology Masters course ready to take the first intake in 2022. Guest speaker Lisa Dalton spoke to members about the course and alignment with the local community, as well as addressing

members’ concerns around the supervision and mentoring of graduates and their retention to the local workforce in Tasmania. Discussion and focus groups also explored many "hot topics" for the state, including workforce distribution, retention and recruitment, waitlist management and managing expectations of the public and other health professionals in accessing our services. There was also a focus on how to connect Tasmanian SLPs to support them better and improve the current workload "crunch" with heavy demand for services and limited human resources. Overall, it was a productive day with many action points for the coming year.

Careers Day Three SLPs volunteered their time to host a stall at Hobart College’s Careers Day in June. The College provides Years 11 and 12 education and hosts an annual day for students to explore future careers. The stall was well attended with enquiries from students, with interest for both interstate and the proposed University of Tasmania Speech Pathology courses.

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Speak Out | October 2021