May 2008 Edition - agosci

articles articles36A Speech Pathologist at the 2020 Summit (cont)with the group of 25 in my sub-stream of early childhood andschooling. There were several others making similar argumentsfor putting resources into early childhood development suchas Professor Frank Oberklaid, a pediatrician from the RoyalChildren’s Hospital in Melbourne, who warned that it was a“pay now or pay later” question.There were many challenges such as convincing the other substreamswithin the Productivity stream that without an emphasison early childhood, there would be a much poorer outcome interms of numbers and skills of employable workers. The otherchallenges were condensing my point to make it punchy enoughto get across to politicians or people who don’t work in healthor childhood education. I was even lucky enough to have a chatwith Kevin Rudd who to his credit was interested in what it waslike working in schools “at the coalface”. I tried to stress theMountains and Molehills:The South Australian Statewide Complex Communciation Needs Projectby Janelle Sampsonsccn@novita.org.auDue to a generous allocation of South Australian StateGovernment funding, the diverse range of services requiredto fully support people with Complex Communication Needs(CCN) is fi nally on the map in South Australia.In 2007, the State Government announced funding for a periodof 12 months for the Statewide Complex Communication Needs(SCCN) project, managed through the NovitaTech Division ofNovita Children’s Services in South Australia. The aim of theproject is to enhance the communication opportunities andparticipation of people from 0-65 with CCN in South Australia.The expected outcomes of the project are:1. Assessment, prescription, provision and follow up ofcohesive and effective total augmentative communicationsystems for people with CCN.2. Development of community knowledge, skills and attitudesto support enhanced opportunities and participation ofpeople with CCN.3. Enhanced social networks for people with CCN.4. Investigation of potential service models to support thedevelopment of an ongoing, state-wide ‘community’ ofpeople with CCN, their caregivers and service providers.With much excitement and an equal amount of trepidation,I took on the role of Project Manager in November 2007. Iam completely aware that to achieve such aims and objectivesis a long term and complex process requiring a multitude ofpartnerships, programs and approaches. This is the mountainthat we face and with only 12 months of funding available itmay seem an impossible mission. However, for such a goodcause I was willing to give up any sense of control over mywork-life balance and take this on with the hope that we maycreate a foundation, or shall we say a molehill, on which toimportance of interactions between parents and children and ofallied health professionals such as speech pathologists in hisproposed “one stop shop” parent child centres. He seemed totake that on board but he was also interested in the size of myHECS debt!Another topic that deserved more of a mention that it receivedwas disabilities. There was a lot of emphasis on disadvantagebut this minority group didn’t seem to be a priority.All in all it was a very exciting peek at some of the workings ofgovernment. I do think our profi le as a profession needs raisingas it was hard work sometimes to help people to understandwhy a speech pathologist might be concerned with children’seducational outcomes. I was fortunate enough to come awaywith some contacts to pursue and a real sense of pride in ourprofession and our use of evidence as a base for what we do.build this mountain. In the past, services to people with CCNin South Australia have varied in terms of availability, fundingand expertise dependent on age, diagnosis and geographicallocation. It is hoped that even a molehill can seed a morecomprehensive and equitable approach to these much-neededservices.As I write this article, the project is approaching the half waypoint. This is a time to panic of course, but also to look at whatwe have accomplished and hope to still achieve. There are stillmany challenges ahead as well as future planning for servicesfor people with CCN at the completion of this project.Achievements to DatePersonally, my most important achievement to date as ProjectManager has been the recruitment of a dedicated and energeticteam. Without their understanding and acceptance of thischallenge, and their enthusiasm, even a molehill would beunachievable.As a team, we have placed our initial focus on the fi rst twoexpected outcomes listed above – communication solutionsand communication partner/service provider training. Thesewere the primary drivers of the funding and the most acute andpressing needs. From this, we are averaging 4-5 new referralsper week since the beginning of February, and 7-8 enquiriesper week to our information and advice service. Our currentreferral statistics show a predominance of male (82%) overfemale (18%) and an almost equal number of children (53%)to adults (47%). Primary referral groups in order of frequencyare people with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Motor NeuroneDisease, Cerebral Palsy, Stroke, Head Injury and IntellectualDisability. We are also receiving referrals from a diverse range