Waiting for Speech Pathology - Summary of publications and websites

Frequently Nicole McGill and I are asked for copies of the work we have undertaken about waiting for speech pathology. Here is a summary Nicole sent recently: 

1. • McGill, N., Crowe, K., & McLeod, S. (2020). “Many wasted months”: Stakeholders’ perspectives about waiting for speech-language pathology services. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22(3), 313-326. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2020.1747541 
2. • McGill, N., & McLeod, S. (2019). Aspirations for a website to support families’ active waiting for speech-language pathology. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21(3), 263-274. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2019.1604802 
3. • McGill, N., & McLeod, S. (2020). Waiting list management in speech-language pathology: Translating research to practice. Speech, Language and Hearing, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2050571X.2020.1716471
4. • McGill, N., McLeod, S., Crowe, K., Wang, C., & Hopf, S. C. (2021). Waiting lists and prioritization of children for services: Speech-language pathologists’ perspectives. Journal of Communication Disorders, 91, 106099. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2021.106099 
5. • McGill, N., McLeod, S., & Hopf, S. C. (2021). Waiting list management: Professionals’ perspectives and innovations. Advances in Communication and Swallowing, 24(1), 5-19. https://doi.org/10.3233/ACS-210026 
6. o There is also a recorded online lecture relating to this paper, available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8FO1t1Rrfs 
7. • McGill, N., McLeod, S., Ivory, N., Davis, E., & Rohr, K. (2021). Randomised controlled trial evaluating active versus passive waiting for speech-language pathology. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 73(4), 335-354.https://doi.org/10.1159/000508830 
8. • McLeod, S., Davis, E., Rohr, K., McGill, N., Miller, K., Roberts, A., Thornton, S., Ahio, N., & Ivory, N. (2020). Waiting for speech-language pathology services: A randomised controlled trial comparing therapy, advice, and device. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22(3), 372-386.https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2020.1731600 
9. The Waiting for Speech Pathology website referred to in the articles can be accessed here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/health/wnswlhd/services/speech-pathology 
10. A waiting list management self-paced learning program that is available on the Speech Pathology Australia Learning Hub: https://learninghub.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/speechpathologyaust/1706-waiting-list-management-in-speech-pathology 

Western NSW LHD The First 2000 Days Conference – It’s Everyone’s Responsibility

Cathie Matthews will present the following poster at the Western NSW LHD The First 2000 Days Conference in Dubbo in June 2023. The theme of the conference is It’s Everyone’s Responsibility

Welcome Cathie

Today was our first official meeting with Cathie Matthews as she is finalising her paperwork to undertake a Masters of Philosophy at Charles Sturt University. She will be supervised by Prof Julian Grant, Dr Libbey Murray and myself. Cathie and I have been working together throughout the year preparing a reserach project as part of NSW Health - she will now be supported in her research via the Masters program. Welcome Cathie!

Prof Julian Grant, Cathie Matthews, Libbey Murray and Sharynne McLeod

Waiting for Speech Pathology website - January data

We just received data for our Waiting for Speech Pathology website (https://wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech-pathology) for January (while Australia is on summer holidays). The most popular page was: https://wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech-pathology/childrens-speech

There was still quite a lot of access:

• 920 hits
• 548 page views
• 131 new users
• 258 users
  
• 144 downloads of resources
• States accessing the site: Capital Region, South Australia, County Dublin, Tasmania, Missouri, Victoria, Northern Territory, Western, Australia, Maharashtra, New South Wales, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory, Alberta, Zurich, Connecticut, Nova Scotia, Ontario, England, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Bay of Plenty, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Canterbury, Telangana, Western Region, Casablanca-Settat

NSW Health presentation to 58 sites across NSW

 Yesterday we presented our third presentation to NSW Health.

Presentation 1: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2021/08/nsw-health-allied-health-telehealth.html

Feedback after Presentation 1: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2021/10/feedback-and-impact-re-nsw-health.html

Presentation 2: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2021/08/nsw-health-presentation-communicating.html

Feedback and impact re NSW Health presentation on 3 August 2021

We have just received the feedback regarding our NSW Health presentation Allied Health Telehealth Virtual Education program on 3 August 2021. 67 sites attended the session "Multilingual children: Speech milestones and assessment advice" https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2021/08/nsw-health-allied-health-telehealth.html

Feedback was received from 44 participants. Respondents were based across fifteen NSW Local Health Districts (LHD), specialty networks and organisations

Jen Nicol the Allied Health Educator for the Children's Healthcare Network wrote: "Participants greatly appreciated you sharing your knowledge and experience regarding this topic." 

Here is their feedback in the summary sent by Jen Nicol:

The majority of participants who provided feedback strongly agreed or agreed that the session was well presented (n=42) and an effective learning opportunity (n=42). 

Most respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the session content was pitched at the right level (n=37) and provided new information or a refresher relevant to their individual clinical practice (n=42). 

Respondents were asked to provide examples of how the information presented would impact on their clinical practice. Responses related the following main themes: 

• Review and implement recommended assessments for use with multilingual children e.g. Intelligibility in Context Scale 
• Utilise recommended resources to inform discussions with parents, support work with multilingual families, and share with colleagues from other professions 
• Apply knowledge regarding communication acquisition norms for multilingual children 
• Apply knowledge regarding cultural considerations in assessment of children from different backgrounds 
• Review further research literature regarding working with multilingual children and families 
• Share own multilingual background with speech pathology peers. 

These themes are highlighted in the following comments: 

• Provided me with clear guidelines around what to expect in terms of speech sound production for children learning more than one language; and clear guidelines around encouraging children to continue learning their first language even when they are having difficulty with learning English. 
• How to assess and manage multilingual children presenting with speech sound difficulties, where to find resources, being encouraged to share my own knowledge about my second language with peers in the SLP profession! 

Participants were asked to identify the best part of this session. 

• Responses related the following main themes: 
• Knowledgeable and engaging presenter 
• Sharing of resources and links 
• Practical information and resources relevant to clinical practice 
• Clear and concise explanation of current Australian and international research 

Update, revision and validation of current knowledge and practice. 

These themes are highlighted in the following comments: 

• Sharynne was a very engaging speaker, managed time very well and got through all the content, I felt it was summarised very succinctly and effectively, great resources shared. 
• Information regarding multilingual intelligibility and that all children are 90-100% intelligible by 4-5 years. 
• Great evidence to have for other health professionals who suggest it is just caused by multiple languages. 

The Allied Health Educators would like to thank the presenter for their work on Multilingual children: Speech milestones and assessment advice, and for sharing their experience and knowledge with allied health professionals across NSW.

Waiting for Speech Pathology Website - Google Analytics Report

Our Waiting for Speech Pathology Website (https://wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech-pathology) is still quite popular. 

We received our Google Analytics Report for August today. 

• Page views during August 2021 = 2,434
• Downloads during August 2021 = 480
  

Previous results: 

• Oct 2019-June 2021 = 20,126 page views (15,271 unique page views) 
• July, August, September 2019 = 1,033 hits 

Today the Multilingual Resources pages have been uploaded: https://wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech-pathology/Multilingual-Resources. There is information in the following languages:

• Visiting a sp​eech pathologist: what to expect? Farsi: فارسی, Burmese: ဗမာ​ , Swahili Kiswahili, Arabic: العربية , Dari: داری ,  Nepali: नेपाली 
• Learning about books and print: English, Farsi فارسی , Burmese ဗမာ, Swahili Kiswahili , Arabic العربية, Dari داری , Tamil தமிழ், Nepali नेपाली 

Burmese: Visiting a speech pathologist - what to expect

 

NSW Health presentation: "Communicating with children and families in a multilingual world"

Dr Sarah Verdon, Dr Van Tran and I presented the second of three Allied Health Telehealth Virtual Education Sessions today (31 August 2021) - titled "Communicating with children and families in a multilingual world" 

Registrations closed with more than 85 health professionals from 54 NSW Health facilities registered to attend. "This has again proven to be a very popular topic!" (Jen Nicols)

• Registered participants are from a range of professions including audiology, dental, dietetics, genetic counselling, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychology, social work and speech pathology. 
• Registered Local Health Districts are: ACT Health, Albury-Wodonga Health, Central Coast, Hunter New England, Mid North Coast, Murrumbidgee, Nepean Blue Mountains, Northern Sydney, South Eastern Sydney, South Western Sydney, Southern NSW, Sydney, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Western NSW, Western Sydney. 

 

Here is some of the feedback written in the online chat that was sent to us from Jen Nichols at NSW Health 

• “thanks for the tips on home maintenance of mother tongues. This answered a lot of my questions” 
• “Great presentation, very useful tips and information to use with families. Thank you very much!” 
• “Lots of great things to think about and helps us challenge our own practice and approaches."
  
• “Very positive presentation with a lot of good tips and information :)”