Sobering day as another set of friends announce the end of their relationship (5th this year), colleagues at work reveal the depth of their emotional exhaustion and burnout, and any conversations with positivity about next year comes with a side of hesitation and uncertainty.

Tennis was cancelled tonight; I asked my 8yo what he wanted to do instead and he replied 'go for a run'. I haven't run regularly for quite a while, but 3km we did (part run part walk but hey, it's a start).

We've just had thunder and lightning so loud that the house shook and the children screamed. Now trying to calm everyone down to sleep...

Looking for storage ideas for #ADHD particularly kids' craft supplies; 10yo doesn't like clear plastic boxes but stacking wooden boxes result in items getting lost as they are out of sight. She only has a small room with a bed, small bookshelf (overflowing) and chest of draws for clothes.

Last Aphasia SIG meeting for 2024, and it was a real pleasure to hear from the team at the Aphasia Tech Hub at the Queensland Aphasia Research Centre. So many great apps available and so much useful information for clinicians to share with the people we work with.

Today was a reminder of the risks of home health; one of the team was attacked by a dog despite following every safety rule we have. The emergency dept had a 6hr wait so one of the district nurses irrigated&dressed her wounds while we supplied tea and snacks. She's ok, just rather shocked.

#Speechies #SLTs #SLP

Looking for advice from my community #slp #speechie #stroke #alliedhealth #medsky on how to create a sustainable clinical community of practice. I know many of you have been very successful - what advice do you have going in? What do I need to know? What online platform(s) do you use?

Aphasia in Aotearoa day 2 is half way through - neuroplasticity, salience, cultural safety, bilingual aphasia rehab and Aphasia Therapy Finder all explored.

A midnight meeting, 3 hrs sleep, 8hrs of teaching , 1 1/2 hrs of tennis and an hour of persuading the kids to go to bed ... Finally my turn for rest! 8 more hrs of teaching tomorrow :-)

Aphasia in Aotearoa workshop! Two solid days of a room full of SLTs exploring aphasia in more detail and hopefully then heading back to their workplaces reinvigorated and full of good ideas to improve what we're doing and how we're doing it

It's 2am, aphasia meeting is over, now to get a few hours sleep before the workshop starts :-)

The Aphasia in Aotearoa workshop is later this week; I'm printing off lots of aphasia research published in 2024 and was delighted to see the therapy assistants reading through some of the printed articles, asking lots of questions and wanting more speech and language work to do.

Introduce yourself with some jobs you have done apart from what you do now:
1. Childcare
2. Shop shelf stacker
3. Event food prep &waitress
4. Deli assistant
5. Restaurant waitress
6. Healthcare assistant
7. Youth worker(Manc)
8. Youth worker(London)
9. Youth worker(NZ).
10. Food bank volunteer

Enjoying a short stint of working in home health covering a critical vacancy - likely back to the wards early next year but meanwhile I get to do creative aphasia therapy, provide support for people to get back to community life and enjoy being back in a team I loved being part of a few years ago.

Lovely lunchtime today catching up with SLT colleagues at a hospital on the other side of the city that I haven't been able to visit for years. Great to hear about their service structure, quality projects and plans

Spent a fascinating hour with a CAMHS OT learning about sensory regulation and modulation in an effort to help my sensory seeking kids manage in increasingly complex and quiet classrooms now they are getting older. Also learning about my sensory-avoidant self!

Finished my Saturday shift and met the rest of the family at the voting station at the local school - lovely to vote with the kids there to see what it looks like and to see people they know from their community actively involved in voting too.

Week one day three of the school holidays. The children have decided they are doing tonight's chores and the grown ups get to go to bed early. 9yo has hung out two loads of laundry and 7yo has just read me a bedtime story :-)