From ordering a coffee and making a doctor’s appointment to reconnecting with loved ones or returning to work, communication plays an important role in our everyday lives.
For people experiencing communication or swallowing difficulties, these everyday moments can be challenging.
This Speech Pathology Week, 23–29 August, we are celebrating the theme ‘Communication Creates Possibility’ and recognising the difference our Speech Pathology team makes every day to help people connect, participate and live more independently.
Our Speech Pathology team includes more than 30 speech pathologists and allied health assistants, working across all four Northern Health campuses and in community settings.
The team supports people of all ages across acute, subacute rehabilitation and community services, helping people experiencing communication or swallowing difficulties associated with conditions including stroke, acquired brain injury, disability, developmental delay, dementia, Motor Neurone Disease (MND), and hearing or vision loss.
And speech pathology is about much more than speech.
Our speech pathologists support people with:
- Speech – producing speech sounds and coordinating speech movements
- Voice – including changes to voice quality, pitch, loudness and strain
- Language – understanding and using spoken and written language
- Fluency – including stuttering
- Cognitive communication – supporting communication affected by changes in memory, attention, problem-solving and executive functioning
- Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) – providing alternative ways to communicate when speech is limited or not possible
- Swallowing and feeding – helping people eat, drink and swallow safely, including supporting swallow safety as part of tracheostomy management
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Each day of Speech Pathology Week highlights a different possibility that our dynamic workforce can create:
- Day 1: Possibility to connect: strengthening communication to create and maintain meaningful relationships
- Day 2: Possibility to learn: developing language, literacy and communication skills in education settings
- Day 3: Possibility to grow: fostering communication skills that grow confidence and independence
- Day 4: Possibility to belong: minimising communication barriers to support inclusion and everyday participation
- Day 5: Possibility to choose: supporting people to communicate what is important to them
- Day 6: Possibility to participate: encouraging participation across health, work, education, and community settings
- Day 7: Possibility to thrive: championing communication and swallowing outcomes to improve wellbeing and quality of life
For Northern Health Community Speech Pathologist Karthika Venkatachalapathy, these possibilities are at the heart of her work.
One of Karthika’s patients, who experienced an acquired brain injury, described speech pathology as having “changed her life” after she was able to return to the workforce.
For Karthika, seeing this progress is one of the most rewarding parts of her role. “There is a deep fulfilment in being an instrument to create these everyday possibilities,” she says.
Whether it is helping someone regain their voice after a stroke, safely enjoy a meal, return to work or communicate what matters most to them, speech pathologists help people find ways to participate and connect with the world around them.
Speech Pathology Week is an opportunity to recognise the expertise and dedication of our Speech Pathology team and the important role they play across Northern Health.
It is also a reminder that communication is about more than speaking. It is about being heard, understood and included.
This Speech Pathology Week, we celebrate our Speech Pathology team and the many possibilities they help create for our patients, consumers and their families every day.
Because communication creates possibility.
Pictured in featured image: The Speech Pathology team at the Northern Hospital Epping.