Contact

Jodi Lipscombe | Head of Department

Jodi.Lipscombe@health.wa.gov.au

Carolin Jentzsch | Senior Speech Pathologist

Carolin.Jentzsch@healh.wa.gov.au

Departmental Overview

The Speech Pathology Department provides inpatient and outpatient services to patients referred with communication and feeding disorders. Our speech pathologists work in partnership with caregivers and other health service providers to provide assessment and management for infants, children and adolescents with communication and/or swallowing difficulties.

Our department is a state-wide service for consultation, second opinion and diagnostic assessment of complex medically based swallowing and communication disorders. Speech Pathology staff provides formal teaching, training and education to undergraduate and postgraduate speech pathologists from Curtin University and Edith Cowan University (ECU).

The speech pathology department has a commitment to supporting best practice service delivery through quality improvement and research partnerships. Our current focus is on the continuing to collaborate and engage with our Curtin and ECU University partners in facilitating and supporting Honours Student research projects.

Quality Improvement Projects 

• Communication Interventions for Paediatrics with Posterior Fossa Syndrome: A review of the literature – in progress.
• Impact of frame rates in Videofluoroscopy (VFSS) for detection of aspiration and structural abnormalities in the Paediatric population: A review of the literature – in progress.
• Cleft Lip and Palate Early Intervention Pathway 0-3 years: literature review and service delivery pathway – waiting for confirmation of funding.
• Cochlear Implant resource project: standardisation of habilitation and CALD resource development – waiting for confirmation of funding.
• Creation of paediatric dysphagia simulation scenarios to support knowledge translation for Speech Pathologists.
• Creation of an eLearning module to support knowledge translation amongst diet kitchen staff – completed.
• Development of Pierre Robin Sequence PCH clinical guidelines – completed.
• Paediatric dysarthria assessment, management and outcome measures: A review of the literature – completed.

Research Projects and Collaborations

• Evidence-based guidelines for prevention and management of respiratory disease in young people with cerebral palsy – publication Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology.
• Can RESPiratory hospital Admissions in children with cerebral palsy be reduced?: A feasibility randomized Controlled Trial (RESP-ACT) – in progress.
• The impact of parent coaching on early communication development with infants and toddlers – in progress.