Speak Out October 2020 DIGITAL EDITION FINAL

experience we’ll be learning from for some time to come. One of our psychologists won, but kindly donated the prize back to the working group. So, thanks Gayle Weir! Collaborative conversations The decision was made—in keeping with the Communicating with Confidence theme of the week— that we conduct interviews to showcase the myriad ways speech pathologists in the department collaborate with colleagues. Speechies interviewed a range of colleagues, including a psychologist, school nurse, visiting teacher, social worker and a health and wellbeing support officer. Interviews were uploaded to our website’s blog, and a link (within our daily emails) sent out to the 137 wellbeing and support staff in the Western Melbourne Area. We featured one new interview per day, each day highlighting a new way of collaborating, each one unique, offering examples of what this looks like for those not sold on the benefits of collaboration or those simply unsure of what collaborative practice looks like. The interview series was a terrific way to underscore the team-based work of health, wellbeing and engagement staff within the department. Interviewees shared their positive experiences of collaborating with speech pathologists, which included sharing student information, conducting joint feedback with family members and school staff, and teaming with speechies to plan and run professional learning programs. The benefits of these collaborations included enhanced student wellbeing and engagement, where students were viewed more holistically, and interventions could be multi-pronged. For most staff, the satisfaction of working with skilled colleagues was also a wonderful by-product. Our aim for the week, to promote confident collaborative practice, succeeded in ways we hadn’t predicted. Showcasing collaboration in practice through interviews, sharing resources, informing through activities like trivia and cryptic quizzes was just the start because the collaboration that came about from our working group has lasted beyond this one week. We’ve decided to meet monthly, to plan for next year, to catch-up, to escape the banality of Stage 4. And who knows, maybe this time next year we’ll be out of COVID, confidently planning Christmas holidays, maybe still buzzing from a Speech Pathology Week edition of Hard Quiz where Tom Gleeson says, “this week I’ve been really getting into speech-language pathology!” Since we’re dreaming of a less restrictive 2021, why not dream big? SP Week 2020 Association NEWS

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Speak Out | October 2020