Speechmag

New 'Communicating ethics' article explores use of Seedhouse grid

There wasn't room for 'Boundary issues' in the Winter 10 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice - but don't despair if you missed your ethics fix, as I have just published an online only article which explores the use of the Seedhouse grid.

'Communicating ethics' is a collaborative effort from Professor Jois Stansfield of Manchester Metropolitan University and Jane Handley, one of her former students and now a practising therapist.

When Jane was in her final year she found a series of workshops on a case-based approach to ethical reasoning very helpful. As she says, we frequently need to make decisions that "are often difficult to resolve because they present ethical dilemmas which cannot be reasoned out with logic alone. To achieve the best possible outcome, it seems that a moral judgement is also required." 

The article explores how Jane used David Seedhouse's Ethical grid with a hypothetical client, Bryan (5), who has profound physical and cognitive disabilities. His parents are looking for a second opinion, as they do not believe sufficient time is being allocated to his feeding in school or in respite. This was the first Manchester Metropolitan University speech and language therapy case to be presented in Seedhouse's Values Exchange, an online approach to ethical decision-making.

CPD courses for speech and language therapists

The CLaSS unit at University College London has added new titles to its range of continuing professional development courses for speech and language therapists.

Among them is a two level course on supervision with Sam Simpson and Cathy Sparkes of intandem called 'Are You Getting Enough?' This was also the title of a series of four articles the duo wrote about supervision for Speech & Language Therapy in Practice in 2008. As a speech and language therapy and counselling partnership, they are also offering a new two level course to help therapists develop their counselling skills.

Myra Kersner, one of the authors of A Career in Speech and Language Therapy, is running a new course with Ann Parker aimed at speech and language therapy assistants and teaching assistants. This will include "the practical development of interpersonal communication skills with children and adults who have communication difficulties, with parents and carers, and with other colleagues." Another intriguing and topical option is 'Getting the most out of interagency meetings'.

The full programme also covers dysphagia, mutism, dyspraxia, autism, goal setting, voice, storysharing, psycholinguistics and analysis of sign language.