A day in the life - Speech and Language Therapy
My name is Eimear Mallon, Principal Speech and Language Therapy Manager, with Tusla. I have been working with Tusla as part of a multidisciplinary team for the last eight years. When I started, SLT was relatively new to the organization. In that time, the SLT department has grown in numbers and built an awareness of the impact that trauma and disrupted attachment has on the development of Speech, Language and Communication needs (SLCN).
I work with children in care from 0-18 years by identifying and supporting their communication needs. SLT’s support children and young people to communicate with those around them and support their social and emotional well-being, mental health, relationship building, educational attainment and future life chances. Speech and Language Therapy reduces the potentially negative consequences of unidentified communication needs, including in relation to behaviour, literacy, and the ability to access education and potential exclusion from school.
The following is a “day in my life” as my role as an SLT within Tusla:
I start my day with a review of my emails and quick hello to my team. My first appointment is in relation to a 14-year-old girl who will soon be moving to a long-term residential placement. With the support of the psychologist on the team we are working with her new social care team to develop an understanding of her developmental history, her learning profile, how she relates and gets on with her peers and people who care for her and her underlying SLCN’s. We work with the social care team to develop an inclusive environment for the young person to transition to and support access to local community services. We have already offered support to her local school and most importantly we have provided intervention to her local sports club to support her in pursuing her much loved hobby.
Following this, I along with the social worker on my team are meeting with the parents of a 15-year-old boy to offer feedback and to further develop their understanding of their sons’ strengths and difficulties and how this may impact on how they care for him. I always enjoy meeting with parents directly as they offer so much in their understanding of the young person and support us in our role in care planning.
In the afternoon, I have a young person attending for direct intervention. We are working on his identified goal of understanding and expressing his emotions. This is our third session working with him and as always, I will communicate with his foster family in how they can support him in achieving his goal.
I end my day with updating my notes and responding to any further emails. Every day is different and rewarding and I sign off with a sense of respect for the families that I work with and pride for the young people who engage with our services. I am incredibly lucky to do job that I do.