Speak Out October 2020 DIGITAL EDITION FINAL

Communicating with confidence in a time of COVID SP Week 2020 Association NEWS

Despite the challenges of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and an array of border closures and restrictions, the Association’s membership rose to the challenge of promoting Speech Pathology Week in 2020. Publicity generated by Delta Goodrem with her voice loss and experience working with a speech pathology, plus promotion by Harrison Craig, assisted in helping to spread the word about this year's Speech Pathology Week public awareness campaign. With the Association’s national office closed and staff working remotely, the Speech Pathology Week kit, with promotional collateral, was replaced by a member-only digital kit, downloadable directly from the Association’s website. The new Speech Pathology Week digital kit included a range of social media graphics and tiles that could be used by members on many of the popular social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The kit also included a graphical email signature and a zoom backdrop. The graphics in the kit also enabled members to participate in the Speech Pathology Week social media campaign and to partake in the ‘Pay It Forward’ aspect of the week’s social media activities. While it was pleasing to see members using the materials from the kit, it was exciting to see members designing their own graphics incorporating the Speech Pathology Week logo. Congratulations to Rhana Gelens for winning the week’s social media competition. Rhana's post on instagram encapsulated to the theme of the week and the goals of the competition. Congratulations Rhana! Because of Victoria's state lockdown, it was not possible to record any video case studys to highlight the work of the profession, as has been done in previous years. Instead, to highlight the challenges faced by Australians with communication disability and the role played by speech pathologists, two videos utilising a jigsaw and Rubik’s cube

were designed and produced in-house. Each video makes two simple points. Firstly, that

communicating with confidence for some Australians can be a challenge; and secondly, that speech pathologist play an important role ensuring everyone is communicating with confidence. A third and final video was released towards the end of Speech Pathology Week to highlight the many ways that Australians with communication disability communicate. This video provided an easy to understand message that not all communication involves speech. The video was produced in-house, and drews on video footage recorded during previous Speech Pathology Weeks. Highlighting that recycling is not just limited to the physical world but extends to the digital sphere. Finally, a huge thank you to all the members who got involved in Speech Pathology Week 2020 in one form or another. The success of the week is directly related to their engagement, hard work and dedication.

Michael Kerrisk Communications and Marketing Manager

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Speak Out | October 2020