Hills District Speech Therapy have developed a well refined method for processing and responding to all inquiries we receive about our adult speech pathology services.

IMPORTANT: Please ensure to inform us as soon as possible if you/the client are experiencing difficulties with eating and drinking and/or have encountered an increase in coughing, choking and/or chest infections.

The Enquiry & Booking Process

1. Process Enquiry

Welcome to Hills District Speech Therapy. You, a carer, or your care provider (aged care facility or hospital) may have already left us a voicemail, message or email indicating your interest in our service/s. Your message has been received and directed to one of our senior speech pathologists who will begin the formal intake process with you. 

2. Intake Call

A senior speech pathologist will contact you to obtain additional information around you/the client’s needs to help us best direct you to the ideal service and best suited member/s from our adults team. The therapist will advise of costs and availability prior to booking you in for a service or meet and greet with one or more of our lovely speech pathologists. 

3. Booked Appointment

The therapist may advise you book in for a comprehensive speech pathology assessment which will allow us to better capture and analyse your/ the client’s functional communication and/or swallowing skills. You will receive a booking confirmation email containing forms to complete prior to attending HDST. An SMS confirmation will also be sent prior to the initial consultation. 

I’m booked in for my first consultation at HDST. What can I expect after this?

1

Pre-Assessment

We may request permission from you or your legal guardian to contact other professionals. This is typically done before your first appointment and ensures that we have obtained critical information such as your medical history. This information allows us to gain a holistic understanding of you and assist us to plan a most appropriate and functional assessment.
2

Assessment

A thorough initial assessment allows us to collect all the required information, so we can then carefully analyse and interpret the findings to formulate an appropriate intervention plan. It is important that you read your assessment confirmation email carefully, filling in all required forms and bringing in any any relevant reports from professionals that may relate to your difficulties or diagnosis. Please be sure to also bring any requested foods/drinks should you be booked in for a swallowing assessment.
3

Service Agreement

We believe in transparency, so we will discuss and create a service agreement with all our NDIS registered clients. This involved developing specific goals derived from your NDIS plan and selecting an appropriate package of services for the duration of the agreement.
4

Reporting

All initial and review assessments come with a comprehensive and individualised report which include findings, explanations, interpretations, insights, valuable recommendations and an outline of intervention plans. With consent, these reports are then provided to all health professionals and carers working closely with the client, including their caregiver, general practitioner, neurologist and gastroenterologist. This communication of findings is a critical step in establishing strong and open communication lines with all involved in the client's care.
5

Planning Intervention - Setting Goals

Goal selection is essential to progress. Carefully selected goals and targets, based on evidence-based practice can mean lots of time and money saved. We strive to involve you/the client and their caregiver/s in all goal planning. This ensures that we are targeting goals that are functional and meaningful to you, enabling you to make the most out of each session. All intervention will be under the watchful eye of the adults team and our leading supervisors as we set out to take a holistic approach in order to optimise progress.
6

Regular Sessions

For most therapy to be effective and gains seen, frequent and intensive practice is required. This is why we need you to commit to regular sessions in which we guide you with what needs to be done in home practice sessions. Practice sessions at home/outside of the clinic are crucial to progress.
7

Collaboration

We value the importance of team collaboration and therefore emphasis is placed on liaising with carers and other professionals involved in your/the client's care.
8

Reviews

We will suggest reviews every 6-12 months, whereby we can formally evaluate progress. Progress monitoring is however occurring at each session – our decisions for the next session are based upon data collected and goals obtained in the last session as well as your feedback, information from your carer/s, and observations.
9

Maintenance

We want you to maintain the gains you make in therapy! We will recommend a maintenance plan once the majority of goals are reached in order to ensure the skills continue to generalise into everyday life.

About our Adult Speech Pathology Assessments

At Hills District Speech Therapy, we strive to provide outstanding speech pathology assessment services to our current and new clients. The start of a strong therapeutic relationship with our clients begins with a warm hello and an opportunity to get to know more about them – their history, their strengths, their concerns, and needs. This is best achieved through conducting a comprehensive speech pathology assessment.  A thorough initial assessment allows us to collect all the required information, so we can then carefully analyse and interpret the findings to formulate an appropriate intervention/management plan.

What do we use to assess our clients?

Our therapists utilise a range of tools and sources of information to build a comprehensive profile of their clients during an initial assessment. Decisions around how an assessment should be conducted is often made by considering:

  • The concerns of the client and their carer/legal guardian
  • The client’s age, cultural and linguistic background and life circumstances
  • The setting in which the assessment will be conducted (i.e. face to face at the clinic/home/aged care facility, or online)
  • What tools we have within our reach at our clinic
  • The most recent, high quality research on best assessment practices.

Here are some examples of tools and procedures we may use during an initial or review assessment:

  • Standardised tests
  • Non-standardised tests
  • Informal tests and probes
  • Carer questionnaires
  • Carer and health professional interviews
  • Language and speech samples
  • Observations
  • Physical and functional examinations of mouth and nasal areas
  • Food and fluid trials (swallowing)
  • Digital recordings-audio & visual
  • Fluency ratings
  • Low and high-tech device trials

When do I receive a report?

We pride ourselves in composing well-written, detailed assessment reports for our clients, their carers and wider management team. The process of collating, interpreting, and reporting on findings from the client’s assessment can often mean that a report may take up to 4-6 weeks to complete from the day of the assessment. We also offer our clients a priority report option should the client have an upcoming meeting. Nevertheless, we are always more than happy to discuss such requests during and after your first consultation.