Our first pair of speech pathology students - Jaimie and Lizzy - have now finished their placement with Wollongong Speech Pathology. It was a dream having them on board with us. I loved talking to them about clients! It was brilliant to have two extra people involved, giving input into clients' assessment and treatment plans. [...]
Wollongong Speech Pathology is now taking Student Speech Pathologists on clinical placement. Let's talk about why! Benefits to clients: a fresh perspective to therapy programs access to up-to-date evidence & techniques Benefits to the practice: give something back to the profession providing quality clinical opportunities to students Benefits to students: exposure to a wide range [...]
Merry Christmas for 2016! Thanks for another wonderful year We are passionate about our work as speech pathologists, and are lucky to have such a great network of clients and colleagues. Thank you for the opportunity to work together in 2016. Both Di and I will be working this week. We will then have a limited service for 2 [...]
Making a dementia diagnosis is not a straight-forward process. Sometimes it can take years for a firm diagnosis to be made. What does an assessment involve? Dementia diagnosis requires a team approach. As a minimum, assessment will involve: a case history (your GP will ask you questions about your past, your current concerns, what is working [...]
Interview Series: Collaborative practice in the Illawarra Working in private practice, especially out in the community, runs the risk of being isolating. I don't have an office to share with other health professionals. So I miss those important "corridor conversations". Thankfully, working in isolation is not my thing!! It is no fun for me, and not [...]
Our speech pathologist, Di Lam, attended a workshop in Melbourne this year. It was presented by Justine Joan Sheppard, who specialises in Dysphagia in Disability. Here are Di's reflections after the course......... What were the main topics covered? Swallowing and Feeding Disorders in Developmental Disability and their causes Dysphagia Disorder Survey (DDS) & Dysphagia Management Staging [...]
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is changing the face of Disability services in Australia. There is a lot of interest, discussion and media attention on what it means for clients (which is obviously good). But there is not as much discussion about the workers providing the support services. Forecasters tell us that demand for speech pathologists [...]
Speech pathologists work with individuals across the lifespan, from newborn babies to palliative care. As part of a team, we are uniquely trained to assess, diagnose, and treat communication and swallowing disorders. In Australia, all speech pathologists have been trained at a university. For more information, see www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au https://youtu.be/bpy3F9PltAg
Ever stopped to think about the importance of your oral hygiene? That is, how clean is your mouth and teeth? We need good strong teeth to bite and to chew, to shape speech sounds and of course to smile. When we have problems with our mouth and teeth it's bad news - pain, embarrassment, odour, and [...]
Dementia is already the leading cause of disability in Australians aged over 65 years. So we need to find ways to better support the ever-growing number of older Australians with dementia. There is increasing evidence that speech pathology and dementia go together. Speech pathologists can play an important role in dementia-related communication or swallowing problems. Our goal is to [...]
