Health

Our health is important. All aspects of our lives (including our work) are impacted when we are unwell or family members are unwell. These impacts can be short-term -- but also can be long term, especially for researchers like me. There are many years between planning research, writing grant or book proposals, receiving funding, undertaking research and writing it up. Research that involves multiple collaborators can also be impacted by ill health and other circumstances (including happy circumstances such as maternity leave). 

The past few years with the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the world and have slowed down the research cycle. Additionally, I have been impacted by cancer since 2018. Many times, the impact has limited my capacity to think, plan and work. At other times, I have been well and have really enjoyed my work as a distraction from my treatments. During 2022 I have had a number of unanticipated treatments that have significantly reduced my capacity to work - and also my reliability to meet deadlines - and particularly to answer emails. I have appreciated the patience and encouragement from my colleagues.

This week I have had really great news about my health. I am hoping that 2023 will see a healthier year.

Telepractice webinar from UTS

This afternoon I attended a very informative webinar by University of Technology (UTS) Speech Pathology titled "Rapid Transition to Telepractice". The free seminar was presented to 182 allied health professionals from across the world by Prof Bronwyn Hemsley, Dr Lucy Bryant, and Harmony Turnbull. Thanks for your generosity and collegiality during the COVID-19 changes to service delivery for allied health professionals.

Artwork during online meetings

I have been delighted by the way my students and colleagues interact with their children during our meetings while we are all working from home. Here are a few of the lovely drawings their children have created for me.

"Flowers and butterflies"

"A person sitting down"

"r, F and 4"

"The Swirly"

CSU staff advised to work from home due to COVID-19

This afternoon, the Vice Chancellor  advised all CSU staff to work from home. We are fortunate to work at a multi-campus university where working at a distance is embedded in all we do.

Working from home
In line with the announcement from the Prime Minister last night, if you can work from home, you now should, effective tomorrow.
Some important things to note:

• You need to communicate with your manager and ensure they know where you are and that you have the appropriate approval and work plan in place. 
• If you do not have work that you can do from home, we will be providing advice on this in the coming days. 
• For staff who cannot or do not wish to work from home, under current government policy, you can work from campus if you have means to so with social distance. You must maintain social distance at all times. Our preference is, if you can work from home, you do so. 
• For staff essential to the operations of the campus, you will be provisioned with a socially distanced space to work from, if you do not already have one...

Since CSU is a multi-campus university specialising in distance education, I have been using this technology for working from home every day for many years. However, this week there were more pets than usual in my videoconferences!

Suzanne (Fiji) and Holly (Albury) with their dogs

Anna was the first of my students to upgrade to using Zoom for our meetings
(love the background Anna!)