AusACPDM Mealtimes Study Day

Known Resources

• Paediatric dysphagia interest group (SA)
• GISS (all states) - SCOPE (Vic); HENS Nurse/Abbots rep (SA)
• Katy Caynes (CP League QLD) - To produce adult resources
• Disability Network through DHCSS – CARA - Written material to group listing
• Interest Groups with a multi disciplinary focus for professional development, delivery of training and information - Role modelling to carers as well as therapists

To do

• Identify what support people want: (not necessarily to attend meetings)
  - Phone
  - Newsletter
  - Email
  - Forums (online)
• Standard listserves can be problematic because you get every comment, whereas setting up forums avoids this
• Information list of resources available
  Eg DSO in SA – new release of 3 documents
  Guidelines for service provider – accountabilities etc, available on DSO website
• Organisations need really clear, strong policies and procedures and coordination of those policies between different services/sectors ie education, acute health, disability services, rural community health– within some states it has been possible to organize a coordinated approach but this has required the identification of a role to facilitate this, and resourcing to support it.
• Staff Training
  - ie, support workers – now having to take on more and more, need specific training to ensure they are meeting their duty of care, and that OHS&W issues are being addressed.
  - New graduates, especially rural / isolated
• CYH – Training CYH Workers
  Adolescents are a concern – nutritional management – who monitors when they leave a service? (assumed they would become their own care managers, but this is beyond the ability of many of the clients who have significant dysphagia). How does the adult acute health system address the very specific issues for adults with disabilities –currently the system has located a lot of the expertise specific to people with disabilities in paediatrics, not resourced or available within the adult health/support service to the same extent.
• Medico legal issues / professional indemnity - seems to be impacting on willingness to function as a member of a team and to make recommendations regarding dysphagia related issues.
• What are the core skills required by:
  - Personal support workers
  - Families
  - Therapists
  
  There is information relevant to this in different states, but it needs to be compiled, refined and shared
  - Need a statement about this; the question has been/is who has the authority to create this? Ideally should describe the different roles and competencies of the team members, so not just SPA alone – but a description from SPA for speech pathologists could be useful
  - Identify clinical experts within organisations and within states / to take a monitoring/leadership role
  - Endorsement of professional associations (eg SPA) by looking at offering postgraduate education / accounting for experience in dysphagia (ie – gaining accreditation points in dysphagia)
  - SPA – how do they ensure people initially gain knowledge and skills and how do they maintain current them.
  - Same question re other professional groups who may need/develop a ‘specialty’ to support best practise dysphagia management