This week marks Speech Pathology Week. It's an opportunity to understand the work done byspeech pathologists with the 1.2 million Australians who have a communication disability.
This year’s theme – Communicating for Life – aims to highlight the vital role speech pathologists play in supporting quality of life across the lifespan. Any communication difficulty, whether it be mild or complex, may be a barrier for a person to interact with others and participate in everyday activities.
Communication is a basic human right. This week helps to raise awareness of communication disability which affects a person’s ability to understand and be understood by others.
Meet our Speechies
Rachel Toby, who works in Northern NSW and Southeast Queensland, joined The Benevolent Society in 2017 and has been working as a speech pathologist for 10 years.
“I look forward to Speech Pathology Week each year as we can highlight the profession and further understand the role of a speech pathologist,” she says. “I see it as an opportunity to provide more insight and understanding to our friends, peers, and colleagues about what speech pathologists do and the unique skills and role we play in our client’s lives.
“Promoting and advocating for our profession is vital to help raise awareness to let others know why communication is a basic human right.”
Senior Speech Pathologist, Rachel Toby.
Speech Pathology was always the career path for Rachel. “I knew I always wanted to work with people to achieve their goals and try to help make their lives a little easier,” she says. “I love working in a multidisciplinary team and collaborating with other professionals to help support and work holistically towards the same goal.”
Career Paths
Speech pathologists work with people of all ages to support communication at all stages of life. Communication difficulties may occur due to developmental delays, brain injuries, intellectual disability, dementia, stroke and more.
“I love how one profession can have so many different specialty areas that allow clinicians to learn, grow and specialise in a particular area depending on their interests or the caseload/clients that they work with,” Rachel says.
“I have a strong interest in AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) and technology. I love that the profession is growing with technology and modifying it to assist people with a disability to live their best life.”
Saying thanks
The Benevolent Society would like to acknowledge all our speech pathologists for all the valuable work they do to help people live full lives.
For more information on our Speech Pathology services, call 1800 236 762 or click here.