Speak Out October 2018

From the President

AT THE TIME of writing this, Brisbane has just been through a week of strong winds and rain. Perfect weather to curl up with the Book of the Year books and enjoy the treat of the language and illustrations that combine to create engaging stories. Book of the Year is one of my favourite Association activities – it is an effective way to raise awareness in different sectors of the community about the work that we do. We have had some great engagement with libraries and there are many activities being held around the country by Association members. Thank you to the judges of the Book of the Year and to the Branches and individuals who are holding events. In this edition of Speak Out it is great to see the activities that happened around the country for Speech Pathology Week this year. Making the time to be able to share an aspect of the life-changing work we do with the community, raises awareness of the profession, and may contribute to someone who needs our services being able to access the right support at the right time, because they found out who could help, or a service was funded because the decision- makers understood its importance. Never underestimate the power of the work you do telling the community about the profession. While we are talking about all things communications, I would like to congratulate our comms team - Michael Kerrisk and Ian Yorski for their work on our 2017 Speech Pathology week campaign vignettes, which won the Victorian State Award for the Social and Digital Campaign. Ian Yorski produced the vignettes and Rebecca Faltyn (who is now working in another job) produced the graphics associated with the campaign. Congratulations. Further congratulations to the comms team with Mary Woodward on the production of the Speech Pathology in Youth Justice vignette – a powerful advocacy tool for speech pathology in youth justice. If you have not seen it have a look for it on the Speech Pathology Australia YouTube channel. In other areas of work, we have continued profession. You may have seen the news that our National Aged Care Advisor, Kym Torresi, was at the roundtable developing the Terms of Reference for the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. The Association will, of course, be writing a submission for the commission. We have continued to develop our Reconciliation Action Plan, and a survey to advocate for, and with, people with communication disability and for the

seeking your feedback on the plan will shortly be available. The draft plan is available for viewing on the website. We have also commenced our roll-out of the Cultural Capability Training, with events being held in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide in November. We will continue to roll-out training in 2019. In late November at the Board meeting, we will discuss how to meet the training needs of members who were not able to attend the face-to-face events due to distance, time or simply that it was sold out! My thanks to Mary Gornik and our very capable CPD teams across the country for their work in making these workshops happen smoothly. One of the great aspects of my job is meeting members at various Association events. In my conversations with them, members will often express surprise at the broad-ranging and extent of the work that the Association does. If you have any suggestions of how we may better communicate the work that the Association does on your behalf we would love to hear them! A great way to find out the work of the Pathology Australia Board of Directors and will close on 31 January 2019. Successfully elected Directors will commence their term in June 2019 for a two-year term. I urge you to consider standing. If you are interested in finding out more please contact me or any other director, or CEO Gail Mulcair to talk further. If involvement at a National level is not your thing, then consider getting involved at a Branch level. Even if you are not able to join Branch meetings face-to-face then you can join remotely via teleconference or webconference. I regularly attend the Tasmanian and Northern Territory branch meetings from the comfort of my armchair! Getting involved at branch level is a great way to make a difference in your local community for the profession. Find out more about your branch at: www.speechpathologyaustralia. org.au/SPAweb/Members/Branches/ SPAweb/Members/Branches/Branches. aspx?hkey=e2dcc867-aedb-47e8-993d- b29ebab2b34c Until next time, happy reading! Association is to become involved. Nominations are open for the Speech

Gaenor Dixon

Gaenor Dixon National President

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October 2018 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out