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HOW I

SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Winter 200724

WITH SERVICES UNDER FINANCIALAND STAFFING PRESSURE (RCSLT,2007) AND A NEED TO ENSUREUNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS HAVESUFFICIENT QUANTITY AND QUALITYOF PLACEMENT ExPERIENCE,IMAGINATIVE SCHEMES ARE CALLEDFOR. THESE RECOGNISE STUDENTS ASAN ADDITIONAL RESOURCE RATHERTHAN AN ADDITIONAL BURDEN -WITH A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTIONTO MAKE TO SERVICE PROVISION.OUR AUTHORS SHOW WHY THIS

BENEFITS CLIENTS, CARERS, STUDENTS,THERAPISTS, UNIVERSITIES ANDSERVICES, AT THE SAME TIME PLAYINGA PART IN TURNING POLICY SUCH ASACCESSIBILITY, USER INVOLVEMENTAND INTERPROFESSIONAL WORKINGINTO REALITY.

ReferenceRCSLT 2007 Money and commissioners: managersspeak out, Bulletin of the Royal College of Speech &Language Therapists 667 November, p.7.

INVOLVING STUDENTS (1)ACCESS-ABILITY

NVOLVING STUDENTS (2)A SAFE CONTExT

INVOLVING STUDENTS (3)EVERYBODY CAN COMMUNICATESOMETHING

HOW I INvoLvE STudEN

PRACTICAL POINTS: INVOLVING STUDENTS

1. THINK OUT OF THE BOx WHAT CAN STUDENTS ADD?2. CONSIDER SERVICE CENTRED AS WELL AS PERSON CENTRED SCHEMES

3. FIND USEFUL WAYS TO ACCOMMODATE LARGER GROUPS

4. STRUCTURE MEANINGFUL, HOLISTIC LEARNING CONTExTS

5. CARERS MAY WELCOME THE CHANCE TO BE INFLUENTIAL

6. ExPLOIT AND DEVELOP MULTI-MEDIA SKILLS

7. SUPPORT INTERPROFESSIONAL UNDERSTANDING

8. CHOOSE PROJECTS THAT RAISE AWARENESS OF IMPACT

9. ExPOSE STUDENTS TO CLIENTS STRENGTHS AND PERSONALITIES

10. RECOGNISE WIDER BENEFITS FOR THE PROFILE OF THE PROFESSION

HoW I (1):

Access-abilityALISON MATTHEWS, EMMA SIMS, KATIE COWBURN, AMY

ERWIN, AMY SADOWSKI, NICOLA DERBYSHIRE, LIZANNE

CARTER AND LINDA COLLIER GIVE MANAGERIAL, STUDENT AND

UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVES ON A SERVICE CENTRED ACCESSIBLE

INFORMATION PROJECT FOR ADULTS WITH LEARNING

DISABILITIES.

1. Te eam Managers viewTe Oldham Communication Terapy eam takesa very proactive approach to introducing service cen-tred and person centred accessible inormation (Mat-thews & Samuels, 2006).

We recently piloted a project with six speech and lan-guage therapy students rom the University o Man-chester on placement with us one day a week or 6

weeks. Te rst session involved them attending ouraccessible inormation training day. Tey were thengiven an accessible inormation reerral* and asked tocomplete the piece o work. Te Learning DisabilityService Community Projects supported by the stu-

dents included woodwork, gardening and recycling.Tis type o work benets several service users inone go and alls into the category o service centred

work as opposed to person centred (Matthews &Samuels, 2006). Te students were supported by ourCommunication Development Workers (Matthews& Baynham, 2006) with some input rom me aseam Manager. Tey visited the project sites and

worked with the service users and sta to developthe resources required.

I was aware that Linda Collier rom the Univer-sity o Manchester is always looking to explorealternative opportunities or student placements.

At the same time, as a therapist and eam Man-ager o an already over-stretched service, I've beenkeen to design placements where it eels like theservice has some kind o return. Tis could be aparticular piece o work or a reduction in waitinglists or individuals or or accessible inormation.As well as the benets to the service, the accessi-

ble inormation has had an impact or the peoplewith learning disabilities who are working on theCommunity Projects. Feedback has been positive

to the extent that, the aternoon the students n-ished, the manager o the projects asked when hecould have the next group!

2. Te students viewTis project has been benecial or both our pro-essional / clinical development and the speech andlanguage therapy team. Tey were able to delegate

work to us, taking pressure o them by decreasingtheir time on projects that would have taken many

weeks. With minimal input our projects were un-dertaken independently. Tis is o particular valueor all therapists with large caseloads and little timeto do this kind o work themselves. We benetedrom the opportunity to develop skills we did notpreviously have and welcomed the opportunity to

work with students rom other years.

Project 1: Gardening CentreOur project was to show the process o making ahanging basket in an accessible ormat or serviceusers (gure 1). We also developed the idea o apocket sized laminated fick-book to make theequipment and tools used at the centre more ac-cessible or sta and service users (gure 2).

Project 2: Recycling CentreWe produced accessible inormation or the serviceusers at the recycling centre by making a variety o

vital inormation sheets. Our pieces included what


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HOW I

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TS

SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Winter 2007

to wear when out in the van, how to use scissorssaely (gure 3), how to use the small shreddersand how to report an accident.

Project 3: WoodworkAmy S. and Lizanne say:Our task was to make inormation accessibleor the woodwork project that runs in Oldham.

When we rst visited we looked around and sawwhat they did with the adults with learning dis-abilities, and we met the service users. We werethen given the dierent inormation they wouldlike to be made accessible; this included taking allthe dierent screw sizes and making it so that theservice users could nd a certain size easily, giving

them just a little bit more independence. For thiswe took each screw size and length and developeda symbol system with a corresponding colour oreach length and a corresponding shape or eachsize. We also developed a wallet-sized booklet sothe project worker could show a service user whichscrew they want, and then they would be able tond the same symbol on the box that holds thescrews and nd the right amount o screws. We

were also asked to make step-by-step health andsaety check posters or each machine they use, soat the beginning o each day a service user couldcheck the machine was sae and working prop-erly. Furthermore we made posters to show that

eye and/or ear protection was necessary and mustbe worn when using the machine.Te skills we have learnt during this placement

will denitely be useul or uture projects, as theprocess o making inormation accessible is ap-plicable to other populations. We believe it was agood experience or us to meet the service users,as this helped us make the inormation more rel-evant to the users at the various sites. Tis project

was useul or all parties as we gained practical ex-perience in working with adults with learning dis-abilities, and the service users got involved withthe project as well as beneting rom it.

3. Te Universitys viewOver the past ew years we have been developinga series o clinical taster sessions which will givethe students valuable clinical experience in their1st year o studies. Tese sessions have includedvisits to Sure Start schemes, meeting people withdysphasia in their local Communication SupportGroups and making Communication Passportsor service users in conjunction with the Com-munication Terapy eam in Oldham.

Te Accessible Inormation project - oeredinitially to 8 students - was evaluated very highlyby the students and gave them skills that can beused with a whole range o client groups. Testudents were able to meet adults with learning

diculties; even i they never work with this cli-

ent group again during their undergraduate yearsthis experience will stay with them and may helpthem consider working with this client grouponce qualied.

Building on the success o the pilot project thewhole year group attended an Accessible Inorma-tion Day in Oldham in November 2007 and willnow be sent on a variety o placements. Tere hasbeen a huge amount o interest rom other services

who realise there is potential in using students tomake accessible inormation or their clients. Apartrom adults with learning disabilities services, weare also sending students into several schools in the

local area to make Communication Passports andinormation accessible or the children.

Speech and language therapy students need tobe reminded in their 1st year why they have cho-sen the proession and it is really important toinclude clinical experiences alongside their aca-demic studies. Te Accessible Inormation andCommunication Passport work helps to ocusthem on the clinical aspects o the proession,

work with a variety o clients, build their con-dence in their own ability and develop clinicalskills.

Students do not need to be extra work or clini-cal educators; they can be a benet to the service

while gaining skills that will help them through-out their careers.

Alison Matthews is eam Manager of the Communi-cation Terapy eam, Rock Street Centre, Oldham,e-mail [email protected]. EmmaSims, Katie Cowburn, Amy Erwin, Amy Sadowski,Nicola Derbyshire and Lizanne Carter are studentspeech and language therapists at the Universityof Manchester. Linda Collier is a Senior Clinicaleaching Fellow at the University of Manchester, e-mail [email protected].

*Te Accessible Inormation Reerral Form isavailable via the Mag Extras group in the mem-

bers area o www.speechmag.com.

AcknowledgementsTanks to Christine Marsland and Mark Booth,Communication Development Workers, andEric Armitage.

ReferencesMatthews, A. & Baynham, T. 2006 Photo opportunities,

Speech & Language Therapy in Practice Spring, pp.79.Matthews, A. & Samuels, R. 2006 Conference calls: Showand Tell , Speech & Language Therapy in Practice Summer,

pp.2022. SLTP

Using Scissors Safely

When carrying the scissors make sure thescissors are shut

Always put the scissors back on the table whenthey are not being used

At the end of the day, put all the scissors backinto the jug

Figure 1

Figure 3

Figure 2


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NameAddress

...Postcode...

Telephone Number:

Who the information is aimed at

Please give as many details as you can about the work yourequire:.Approx. number of hours required.Deadline if appropriate..Do you require this information in any language other than English? If so, state which

language(s)..

Signed.....Date...

Office use: Priority____________________

Date received________________ Actual time spent________________Contact_____________________ Date completed__________________

Accessible Information Referral Form

reprinted from www.speechmag.com


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Guidelines for Referrals for accessible information

1. Referrals should be made on the accessible informationreferral form. The TC Support workers will ask to discuss

priorities at the locality meeting.2. Please give as much information as you can about who the

information is to be aimed at. For example, is it a specificindividual or a group? Consider the different needs of thatgroup, eg. sensory impairment, English as a secondlanguage.

3. Please give as much information as you can about the type ofwork required. For instance, if you have a document whichyou would like have made more accessible for a specificgroup consider the following points, do you require:

Format a booklet, leaflet, poster, document. What size?What are your requirements in terms of layout?

A video or audiotape? A set of symbols or photographs please list the pictures

required. Have you broken the information down into its essential

points? Does your original document contain complex vocabulary or

jargon? Can this be omitted or do certain words need to be

retained, with an appropriate explanation? For example youmay need to keep the word assessment in a health needsassessment but the person being assessed might notunderstand the word.

Please list the number of hours you would estimate the workto take.

Please return the form to:

Alison MatthewsCo-ordinator, Communication Therapy

Communication Therapy TeamRock Street Centre

Rock StreetOldham

reprinted from www.speechmag.com