David Kinnane

SLP Spark Alert: To get paid, speech pathology services to NDIS participants need to be ‘NDIS supports’

3 October 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

What’s happened:

With effect from 3 October 2024, NDIS participants cannot claim for supports that are not “NDIS supports”.

Why it matters:

To get paid, speech pathologists (SLPs) need to ensure that their services to NDIS participants are NDIS supports (as defined). The Minister expects providers to be up to speed on the new rules within 30 days of 3 October 2024 (at the latest).

Context:

Section 10 of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (as amended) defines NDIS support as a support declared by the rules to be an NDIS support.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) (NDIS Supports) Transitional Rules 2024 are now in effect. Schedule 1 includes a list of supports that are NDIS supports.

Zoom in:

For SLPs, key NDIS supports include:

Early intervention supports for early childhood (Item 17):
- Supports that are evidence-based early childhood intervention supports for children 0-9 years (including children aged 0-6 years with developmental delay) and their families to achieve better long-term outcomes for the child.
- This includes:
  - therapy provided by allied health professionals including speech pathologists;
  - a key worker for a child’s family.
Therapeutic supports (Item 34):
- Supports that provide evidence-based therapy to help participants improve or maintain their functional capacity in areas such as language and communication, personal care, mobility and movement, interpersonal interactions, functioning (including psychosocial functioning), and community living.
- This includes an assessment by allied health professionals for support planning and review as required.

Bottom line:

All Australian SLPs should review their services, and ensure that their services to NDIS participants are NDIS supports within the meaning of the Act and the Transitional Rules.

Go deeper:

Watch our webinar on NDIS reforms for allied health providers.

Links:

National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013

National Disability Insurance Scheme (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) (NDIS Supports) Transitional Rules 2024

SLP Spark: Each speech pathologist should buy their own professional indemnity insurance

1 October 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

The big picture

Some Australian speech pathologists think buying their own insurance is a waste of money, and that they can rely on their employer’s insurance if they get sued.

But:

Your employer might:

not buy enough insurance;
forget to pay their premium;
go bust; or
claim (with their insurer) that your alleged actions or failures aren’t covered by their policy.

Zoom in

As health professionals, every Australian SLP is required to maintain appropriate indemnity insurance arrangements, including under the:

statutory Codes of Conduct applicable to SLPs as unregistered health practitioners or professionals; and
NDIS Code of Conduct applicable to registered and unregistered providers.

Bottom line

SLPs can and do get sued for professional negligence. Litigation is expensive. SLPs should seek professional advice as to the type and amount of insurance they need. We think you should have at least $20 million of coverage.

Code of Conduct – Non-registered Health Practitioners: see section 13.

NDIS Code of Conduct for Providers: see paragraph 50.

Disclaimer: we have done our best to ensure that this information is correct as at the date of publication (1 October 2024). The information is intended to be general only and is not legal advice. Formal legal or other advice should be sought for particular circumstances or for matters arising from this information.

7 tips for managing office politics in private practice

17 September 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

7 tips for managing office politics in private practice:

Unavoidable. In any practice of more than two people, some office politics is inevitable. But it doesn’t have to be toxic.
Be transparent: Talk openly about the value of building connections during onboarding, induction, professional development, and supervision.
Reframe: Highlight the value of networking, negotiation and relationship-building as core competencies for speech pathologists.
Prioritise the team: Set incentives to promote information sharing, communication, and teamwork. Don’t set KPIs that encourage information hoarding, or competition between team members.
Access: Outside supervision, ensure everyone has access to management, and that everyone has the same access to clinical resources and informal support.
Check for biases: Be aware of the extra barriers that some team members face because of their background, gender, race or other factors, and insist on including everyone.
Share stories: Ask team members to share examples of times when they have been helped by others, or leveraged relationships and resources to be effective in their roles.

Source: Wyatt, M. and Doldor, E. (2022). Office Politics Don’t Have to Be Toxic. Harvard Business Review, May 2022.

Employed speech pathologists: timeless tips to manage oneself at work

10 September 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

Strengths: Concentrate here. Seek and use feedback. Build skills and knowledge to bolster existing strengths.
Weaknesses: Don’t waste energy, resources, and time trying to be good at everything.
Respect: Say please and thank you. Know your clients’ names and ask after their families and interests.
Learning: Do you prefer reading or listening? Do you express yourself better by talking or by writing?
Team player? Do you work well with teams, or alone?
Decisions: Do you prefer decision-making or advising?
Environment: Are you best under pressure surrounded by uncertainty, or in a highly structured, predictable environment?
Personal values: Must be close enough to your employer’s values to coexist.
Contribution: Where and how do you want to make a meaningful difference within the next 18 months?
Communication: As speech pathologists, take responsibility for communicating with others.
Act now: Strengths + self-knowledge + optimal work environment for you + meaningful contribution = career excellence.

Key source: Drucker, P.F. (1999). Managing Oneself. Harvard Business Review, reprinted, January 2005.

For information on supervision, check out our book “How to supervise speech pathologists properly in private practice“.

SLP Mentors and Supervisors – fight for your rights to avoid burnout

30 August 2024 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

Speech pathology mentors and supervisors commit time, attention and resources to develop other speech-language pathologists (SLPs).

Mentors and supervisors have the tricky job of simultaneously supporting SLPs while gatekeeping their competence on behalf of the profession and our clients.

Most mentors/supervisors are busy with case- and workloads, and family, community, and other commitments outside work.

Supervision and mentorship increase SLPs’ significant burnout risk. SLPs mentoring or supervising too many SLPs, SLPs from underrepresented groups, and SLPs who lack time, training, and resources to do the job are at even higher risk.

Mentoring and supervision can be rewarding: you can be a good mentor/supervisor and avoid burnout. But we need to be honest about the costs.

Exhausted, overwhelmed and disengaged SLPs make poor role models, mentors, and supervisors. Watch for early burnout signs: e.g. exhaustion, cynicism and inefficiency.

Mentees and supervisees are not responsible for mentor/supervisor burnout. The true culprits are underinvestment in systems and training, insufficient time and resources, and a lack of management and peer-support.

For the future of our workforce, mentors and supervisors must speak up about their bandwidth, boundaries and self-care needs, and demand sufficient time, training and resources to mentor and supervise SLPs properly.

Key source: Gotian, R., Pfund, C., Cook, C, & Johnson, W.B. (2022). Don’t Let Mentoring Burn You Out, Harvard Business Review, July, 2022.

For more on supervision of speech pathologists, check out our book “How to supervise speech pathologists properly in private practice“.