On the podcast today we welcome the incredible Weh Yeoh, founder of OIC Cambodia, an initiative that aims to establish speech therapy as a profession in Cambodia. Weh has volunteered with people with disabilities in Vietnam, interned in India, studied Mandarin in Beijing, and milked yaks in Mongolia. He started OIC in 2013, and handed over leadership to a local Cambodian team in 2017. He is now co-founding Umbo, a social enterprise bridging the gap for rural children to access allied health services. 

In this episode we get into: 

Why physiotherapy wasn’t the right career path for Weh 

How Umbo started 

The initial resistance to telehealth 

Umbo being a pioneer in online therapies delivered online to rural communities 

Using a key worker model and coaching model while leveraging local resources 

Creating a work environment for clinicians that suit what they need 

How Weh and his team stay connected, especially during lockdown 

The benefit of having people all over the country and having a diverse team 

The types of therapists that come to Umbo are people who care about the social mission, are very open minded and flexible open to learning new things 

What advice Weh would give to a new allied health professional embarking on their career 

What the plans are for the future of Umbo 

Weh’s suggestions on what needs to change in the pediatric landscape 

Links: 

Umbo Website 

Umbo Facebook 

Umbo Instagram 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Megan and Cathy talk about their own experiences with their clinical pathways and (lack of) supervision as new graduates, while taking full responsibility in navigating their professional development. Megan & Cathy have developed a free resource for the allied health industry, the Clinical Supervision Agreement. Find out what the Agreement includes, what it doesn't and who it is suitable for. 

Links: 

DOWNLOAD the Clinical Supervision Agreement 

Learn More about our Therapy Team Talk Program 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today on the podcast we welcome the lovely Raelene Dundon, an Autistic Educational & Developmental Psychologist, author and presenter. Raelene is also the Clinical Director of Okey Dokey Childhood Therapy, a large multidisciplinary allied health practice in Melbourne, Victoria, which she runs with her husband, Andrew.  

Raelene has extensive experience working with Neurodivergent children and their families, as well as Neurotypical children, providing educational, social/emotional and parenting support. Raelene’s husband and children are also Neurodivergent, and she draws on her personal and professional experience to provide support to children and families. 

In this episode we get into: 

What Okey Dokey is all about 

What inspired Raelene to be an author 

What PDA is all about (we are not talking about Public Display of Affection!) 

How PDA is diagnosed 

Suggestions for therapists on what language to use and how to approach parents  

Raelene's helpful guidelines and strategies for therapists getting through a session with a child presenting with PDA 

Imposter Syndrome 

Links: 

Okey Dokey Childhood Therapy Website 

Okey Dokey Childhood Therapy Facebook 

Raelene Dundon Website 

Raelene Dundon Facebook 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today on the podcast we welcome Dr Daniel Golshevsky (Dr Golly), a Melbourne-based paediatrician and father of three. Specialising in unsettled babies and poor sleep, Dr Golly developed this sleep program through his work with thousands of babies over more than a decade of practice. With a focus on empowering parents and protecting mothers, Dr Golly turns up the volume of that innate parental instinct to maximise parents' understanding of their baby's cues and bring everyone closer to a full night's sleep. 

This is what we spoke about: 

What the Dr Golly Sleep Program is all about 

What the signs are of kids that struggle with sleep 

How it's never too late to correct bad sleep 

Why it's important to establish good habits and a healthy relationship with sleep from the newborn period 

Creating positive habits, positive sleep associations for the child, but also for the parents 

How parents can really understand the impact that their own emotions have on their kids 

Imposter Syndrome and how important it is for newer therapists to give themselves time and not compare to more experienced therapists in your field 

Advice to clinicians on finding more time-efficient measures to  get through your work 

Links: 

Dr Golly Website 

Dr Golly Facebook 

Dr Golly Instagram 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are excited to announce we are running an online 3 hour workshop called “From Speaking Words to Writing Stories” on Friday 1st October.  

Megan Ingram and Charmaine Owen will be presenting this workshop perfect for Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Developmental Educators, Allied Health Assistants and General Educators working with children and families. Megan and Charmaine are not only magically skilled and experienced clinicians they are also energetic educators, begone the tiresome lecture style presentation with these two! Be prepared for an honest, down to earth, evidence inspired and super practical professional development session.  

What you will discover: 

There are so many skills involved in getting kids to get their thoughts out of their brains and onto paper.  

We don’t spend enough time thinking about all of those different skills and how interconnected they are 

We talk about the reading rope all the time, focusing on the different components that we need to produce a really strong reader but we don’t focus enough on writing which deserves this equal kind of conversation 

When kids are having a writing difficulty we really need to pick apart and really look at what's going on for them 

Writing is a super complex skill and it takes regular more neurotypical kids years to master it yet some of the little kids that we serve they’re kind of expected to get it in the same timeframe, on top of everything else that they're working on developmentally 

Thinking about this transition from speaking to writing and all of the opportunities that it brings for a therapy team to work around because everyone bring skills and passion to the package 

Seeing writing as such a critical life skill for kids  

Developing a little bit more understanding as to how we can really support parents  

There are strategies that we use to make everybody's journey into writing just so much stronger and smoother  

Making this a really efficient kind of process for kids  

Who brings which skills to the child's learning program and how the team actually work together to get consistency  

Focusing on the team, where we really do bring our best work together with Occupational Therapists, Speech Pathologists, teachers and parents  

The objective is for therapists to gain confidence around the complexity of writing and the components that sit in it 

Links: 

BOOK YOUR SPOT TODAY (Don't miss out!) 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast today we have our lovely guest, Lillian Colley, a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP), owner of Lillian Colley Speech Pathology - a mobile private practice on the Mornington Peninsula, providing home and school based services to children and their families. 

Lillian has worked in the public, private and school-based systems in both Australia and the UK and has a strong interest in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and working with children and young people who have complex disabilities. Lillian is a PODD presenter and is also trained in PROMPT therapy.  

In this episode we chat about: 

Working with families and children with really complex communication 

What to look for in AAC devices 

How to introduce a child or person to a new communication system 

Where Lilian does her therapy sessions 

What Lillian’s caseload looks like  

Using different strategies and sometimes even rules to help the child be understood 

Key takeaways and advice for clinicians wanting to start out in the AAC space 

What Lillian’s go-to communication systems or vocabularies are 

Why you should review the AAC device yearly for the child 

Why you just can’t use an iPad as a substitute 

Using social media as a tool to give you a better insight into different parent groups and community groups 

Links: 

Lillian Colley Speech Pathology Facebook 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our lovely guest on the podcast today is Helen Dimond, a Speech Pathologist and Owner of the practice Joyful Little Voices based on the Sunshine Coast. Helen has worked in paediatrics for the last 20 years.  Helen particularly enjoys therapy using AAC, has a passion for learning, teaching and supervising. 

 

In this episode we get into: 

Helen’s experiences as a Speech Pathologist working with children  

How Joyful Little Voices came about 

What transdisciplinary practice is  

Multidisciplinary versus transdisciplinary  

What transdisciplinary practice looks like across government funded or private services 

Key aspects of delivering care in a transdisciplinary way that clinicians need to know about 

Strategies about how clinicians can decide what sits in their bucket versus what could be shared cross their team 

What the benefits are of the keyworker model 

What the barriers or some of the challenges are in clinicians or therapists picking up this model and starting to use that kind of a model 

The steps or specific strategies therapists could take to try and move towards that end goal of transdisciplinary care in their practice 

 

Links:

Joyful Little Voices Website 

Joyful Little Voices Facebook 

Best Practice in Early Childhood Intervention 

Key Worker Online Course 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast today we welcome our guest, Delia Weston. Delia is a passionate, determined, thoughtful (and as she describes herself, a little bit ‘cheeky’) physio. Delia started her life in the USA and through several happy accidents has found herself putting down roots in the Sunshine Coast in QLD where she and her business partner Jamine Gardener (OT) have recently started a private paediatric therapy clinic called More Than Able Therapy. 

Delia was lucky enough to grow up with her sister Amber, who had Cerebral Palsy, and from a young age she knew that she was meant to be a physiotherapist supporting children like Amber. Delia pulled on her real-life experiences growing up with a sister who had Cerebral Palsy to develop her unique therapy style and holistic approach to supporting children with complex disabilities.  

 

In this episode we chat about: 

Delia’s story as a therapist - what made her decide to get into physiotherapist, and what her experience has been as a paediatric therapist so far 

Delia’s experience growing up with her sister who had a disability 

What Delia thinks the value was that her sister needed and what she would have liked the world to have understood better 

What it was like having a lot of healthcare professionals come in and out of your house as a child  

What therapy looked like back when her sister was receiving therapy 

What could have made a difference for her family that could have helped them to be less overwhelmed in dealing with her sisters’ disability  

What is better about therapy services in the world that we're practicing in today 

How her sister’s disability has shaped Delia as the therapist that she is today

What therapists can do to improve their skills so that they are better able to read and understand their clients with more complex disabilities 

What Delia’s approach is to treating children with complex needs 

What the purpose is of therapists being involved in these children’s lives  

What the bigger picture is that therapists need to consider when they're working with these children with a complex disability and for their families

Delia’s advice to therapists on how they can give families a really positive experience based on what she knows both as a sister of a sibling with a disability and as a therapist 

 

Links: 

More Than Able Therapy Website 

More Than Able Therapy Facebook 

More Than Able Therapy Instagram 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ashleigh Blake is our awesome guest on the podcast today. Ashleigh works as an Occupational Therapist across the private and public sector, with children and their families. 

 

In this episode we get into:

How Ashleigh manages two part time OT roles and also the difference within those two roles 

What the pros and cons are to both of these roles 

How Ashleigh’s skill set has grown by having exposure to both private and public sector 

Ashleigh’s tips from working in a team vs that single profession practice 

How Ashleigh gets the balance right, about being on the edge where she is learning and challenging herself but not sitting back in that comfort zone 

How important it is to have a good mentor 

Practicing good time management and being really mindful of how she uses her time 

What her important piece of advice is when networking and connecting with other allied health professionals 

The benefits of really knowing what you need to know and knowing when to refer 

 

Links:

Kids and Community 

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On the podcast today we chat with Jacqui Broadbridge, a Lecturer (Practice Education) in Occupational Therapy, in the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Griffith University. She currently coordinates student practice education experiences across all years of the program. With over thirty years professional experience, including management roles within vocational rehabilitation & injury prevention, her teaching and research passions focus on the transformative learning experiences of practicums together with creating innovative solutions to a constantly changing industrial and stakeholder landscape. 

 

In this episode we get into:

Where Jacqui’s career started 

What is involved in working with students and student placements at the University 

How those student placements have evolved especially during the pandemic 

The push at the moment is to do more, rural, regional and remote placements 

How the undergraduate training has changed over the years  

How Jacqui thinks workplaces can best support that contemporary student and contemporary model of OT training 

What Jacqui sees as the benefit to services and having students 

What a good placement looks like for students 

What students as graduates are looking for in a job 

 

Links:

Griffith University Website  

Griffith University Facebook  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.