Australians are uniting this week to mark Speech Pathology Week, which kicked off on Monday, August 25.

Speech pathologists play a crucial role in schools, hospitals and communities, helping people of all ages to communicate.

This year’s Speech Pathology Week theme, ‘Impact through Communication’, shines a spotlight on how vital communication is to a person’s quality of life.

Locally, n8 Health speech pathologist Ruth Glanville will be running an information session at the Echuca library on Sunday, August 31.

Ms Glanville said the session would aim to broaden guests’ understanding of what speech pathologists did.

“The aim of the talk will be very much to help increase people’s awareness of the breadth of things a speech pathologist might be involved with,” she said.

“I will also touch on some general communication strategies. They’re not fixes for everything, but it’s just to equip people’s toolboxes ... to help it be a positive experience for both the person talking and the listener.

“People might feel a bit more comfortable if they have to interact with someone who’s a bit harder to understand.”

At any given time, around 1.2 million Australians need support with communication, and one in seven people will experience a communication difficulty at some point in their lives.

Communication includes many elements that affect a person’s capacity to understand others or express themselves.

Speech pathologists can help people improve speech clarity and language development, building skills such as comprehension, vocabulary, sentence structure and the ability to explain thoughts.

Written communication such as reading, writing, spelling is also a common issue that they can provide support for.

For those who have had trouble communicating after certain illnesses, speech pathologists can help rebuild multitasking, problem-solving and thinking skills.

Speech pathologists can also help with stuttering, voice changes and swallowing difficulties, which impact a perso’s ability to communicate efficiently.

Ms Glanville said that while many were unaware of the work speech pathologists did, there was definitely a local demand for services.

“The services at the hospital are always busy, and all the services that are private in the area are always busy as well. So, there’s definitely high demand,” she said.

“One thing I’ll talk about at the talk, too, is sometimes people might think ‘I think I need to see a speech pathologist, but how do I find one?’

“I will explain the public options and then what the private options are and what the differences between them are as well.”

The session with Ms Glanville will be held at the Echuca library from 2.30pm and is free to attend.

To make a booking, visit tinyurl.com/45w5vs4u

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