News

Speech Pathology Week

Aug 21, 2024

Joondalup Health Campus has an outstanding Speech Pathology team which support patients who, like an estimated 1.2 million Australians, experience communication difficulties.

Speech Pathology Week runs from 25 – 31 August with the theme ‘Communicate Your Way’, a goal speech pathologist Jenna Roussy helps her patients work towards daily.

“Communication is a skill so many of us take for granted. At the most basic level, communication enables someone to share their needs but when it functions optimally it is at the heart of creating meaningful interactions and relationships,” said Jenna.

“With some patients, such as stroke patients, I work to support rehabilitation, whereas with patients with neurodegenerative conditions, such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease, I work to optimise their speech and swallowing function for as long as possible to achieve the best quality of life,” said Jenna.

Swallowing is one of the lesser known aspects of speech pathology. Jenna has advanced skills training in videofluoroscopy and flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) which are both considered gold standard assessments of swallowing.

Patients with compromised swallowing face risks associated with eating solid foods and drinking. Dining is such an integral part of so many of our social interactions that the loss of swallow function can lead many patients to become socially isolated.

“I love the more complex patients who have a less typical presentation, working closely with their medical teams, and trying to get to the bottom of the patient’s issue and giving them some support,” said Jenna.

Canadian born Jenna Roussy moved to Australia from the United States in 2017 to complete a Masters of Speech Pathology and began working at Joondalup Health Campus in 2019. She returned to Hawaii during the COVID pandemic.

“The whole experience was eye opening and, at times, pretty confronting. There were limited resources and PPE. We were expected to wear the same N95 mask for multiple days in a row. Many community members I had once known didn’t survive the pandemic and it made me realise how lucky we were in Western Australia,” said Jenna.

On the upside, Jenna gained extensive experience working with respiratory therapists and long COVID patients who had ventilated tracheostomies and was able to advance many of her clinical skills.