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Innovative Telehealth Speech Pathology Pilot : A Story of Collaboration
9th October 2024
A successful collaboration between RDN, Griffith Aboriginal Medical Service (GAMS) and private allied health organisation Umbo, recently delivered an innovative Outreach telehealth speech pathology service to the community in Griffith.
Recruitment of speech pathologist providers has been challenging and can result in face-to-face service not being able to be delivered. To address this challenge, the Healthy Ears, Better Hearing, Better Listening (HEBHBL) program supported an allied health assistant to be present with patients at GAMS while a speech pathologist from Umbo delivered a telehealth clinic.
The comprehensive client-centred practice and early intervention enabled by this service has enhanced the prospects of each child’s skill development. An increase in independence has been observed in the children as they gain confidence expressing themselves. This is evidenced through improved intelligibility for children with speech-sound errors, enhanced comprehension skills for children with language difficulties, decreased stuttering, and the use of Key Word Sign for young non-speaking children.
This Outreach service has proven to be a valuable initiative that has been greatly beneficial for the local community. It offers essential opportunities for children to achieve their full potential by overcoming communication barriers.
“The collaboration between RDN, GAMS & UMBO has been well received by our local community. Currently we have 36 clients that we see within the service. Moving forward we would love to expand the program, outreaching to Lake Cargelligo and Hay. For this to be achievable we would need further funding to support more Allied Health staff” Christie Simpson from GAMs said.
Following the success of this pilot, RDN will actively look for other opportunities to expand this model to other communities in need.
About HEBHBL
The aim of the Healthy Ears, Better Hearing, Better Listening (HEBHBL) program is to increase access to a range of ear and hearing health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, youth and young adults (0-21 years) for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of ear and hearing health conditions. There are no MMM location restrictions to access this service. The program is one of the Australian Government's Outreach programs administered in NSW and the ACT by RDN.
Learn more about HEBHBL.
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