The following manuscript has been accepted for publication
McLeod, S., McGill, N., Baldac, S., & Mulcair, G. (2023). Australia’s speech-language pathology profession and its global impact. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups (SIG 17).
Here is the abstract
Purpose: To describe the speech-language pathology profession in Australia and its global impact.
Conclusion: Australia is known for its international collaboration in research, advocacy, leadership in clinical education and training of the workforce, innovations in technology for service delivery and global partnerships. In Australia, speech-language pathologists are known as speech pathologists who have expertise in providing assessment and intervention to optimise communication and/or swallowing for people across the lifespan. Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) is the peak professional body in Australia and was founded in 1949. It is a self-regulating profession, recognised by the Australian government as the body that sets and maintains the standards for the profession. Members can hold Certified Practising Speech Pathology (CPSP) status if they meet annual recency of practice and continuing professional development requirements. Not all speech pathologists are members of SPA. SPA has approximately 14,000 members, almost half (48.9%) are employed in private practices where services may be funded by government funded schemes, private health insurance, or self-funded by service users. Most (96.5%) SPA members are female and 82.8% only speak English with Cantonese being the most common second language spoken. The Professional Standards for Speech Pathologists in Australia outlines the knowledge, skills and attributes for entry-level and practicing speech pathologists. SPA has hosted an annual national conference and produces two journals: International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology. SPA have committed to cultural responsiveness and privileging the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and Communities, the First Peoples of Australia. SPA has aspired to provide culturally safe speech pathology services for all people and supports the development of speech-language pathology in the Asia-Pacific region including Vietnam and Cambodia.
