Publications | MSWA

Views
2 years ago

MSWA Bulletin Magazine Autumn 2019

  • Text
  • Mswaorgau
  • Treendale
  • Butler
  • Funding
  • Neurological
  • Autumn
  • Accommodation
  • Ndis
  • Bulletin
  • Mswa
NDIS update | 2019 camps | Health education and peer support groups | Fundraising news

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL DYSPHAGIA DIET STANDARDISATION INITIATIVE ISABELLA D’ANNUNZIO & NICOLA DAYMAN, MSWA STUDENT SPEECH PATHOLOGISTS WASTE NOT, WANT NOT ROS HARMAN, MSWA MEMBER Speech Pathologists are known for working with individuals who have communication difficulties, but did you know we also assess and manage swallowing difficulties? A swallowing difficulty is any problem with drinking, chewing, eating, taking medication, or protecting the lungs from food and drink ‘going down the wrong way’. These difficulties can occur at any stage of life and may be short or long term. Depending on the underlying cause or the progression of disease, some swallowing difficulties can persist and worsen over time. With assessment and treatment from a speech pathologist, a swallowing difficulty may be managed, reduced or resolved. There are many types of therapies and strategies to manage swallowing difficulties including modifying diet. These modifications help to make chewing and swallowing both easier and safer for our Members. The current Australian National Standards for Texture- Modified Foods and Thickened Fluids was released over ten years ago in 2007. With the research frequently evolving around the assessment and management of swallowing difficulties, it was decided in December 2016 that here in Australia, we would be changing our current practices to align us with countries all over the world. The International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) is a global standard for terminology and definitions to describe texture-modified foods and thickened fluids for individuals of all ages with swallowing difficulties. “IDDSI is person-focused rather than profession-centred approach with global terminology suitable for all cultures and care settings,” said Dr Cichero, an Australian Speech Pathologist and a co-chair for IDDSI. The IDDSI framework was developed by a group of health professionals who volunteered from all over the world including specialists in speech pathology, nutrition, dietetics, medicine, occupational therapy, nursing and engineering. So far, the MSWA Speech Pathology team have begun preparing for the adoption of IDDSI through attending workshops, providing IDDSI training to MSWA staff and have formed their own IDDSI committee. This committee will be involved in managing the distribution of information as it is made available. IDDSI is set to roll out Australia-wide in May of 2019. This means you may begin to see some new posters around Centres and hear care support workers using different terminology in relation to texture-modified diets and fluids. If you wish to find out more about IDDSI, please visit https://iddsi.org/ or download the free IDDSI Framework app on your smartphone. Alternatively, if you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact the Speech Pathologist team at MSWA for more information, through reception on 9365 4888. Speech Pathology Australia annually aims to educate and advocate for those who have a swallowing difficulty, by the promotion of ‘Swallowing Awareness Day’. This year, it was held on Wednesday, 13 March. The MSWA Speech Pathology team invited all Centre staff for an afternoon tea to inform and provide continued education about the implications of a swallowing difficulty for our Members. Do you often experience: • Coughing while eating or drinking? • Trouble swallowing tablets? • Worry about attending social gatherings where food is offered? • Difficulty in feeding yourself? • Difficulty swallowing your own saliva? If any of these apply to you, you may require a swallowing assessment. Please contact Speech Pathology at MSWA on 9365 4888. I want to be good, but sometimes I’m not. I want to eat healthily, and usually I do, but sometimes I buy a chocolate bar and eat the whole thing by myself in one sitting. I want to exercise regularly and stay strong, but sometimes I spend all day in front of my computer, only moving to feed myself or go to the bathroom. I want to be a famous novelist like Tim Winton, but sometimes I play games on my computer obsessively all day and don’t write a word. In the end, these things don’t affect anyone except me. They don’t really matter. But what does matter is what affects others. I want to live ethically and not waste the world’s resources, but sometimes I waste things and throw plastic away and it breaks my heart. I know I can do better. Like many people, I have been shocked and upset by the terrible images we see in the news of plastic pollution in our oceans. I hate to see the pictures of birds, turtles and other marine life dead or dying because of plastic debris which may well have come from my own kitchen. I care about our environment and I love all creatures. (Note: I don’t actually love cockroaches, but I accept their right to be here.) It is horrible to see the dreadful impact humans have had on the earth. When I was a young child, plastic was not as big a part of my life as it is now. Most of the containers in our kitchen were made of china, glass or metal. My mother eventually bought a few pieces of Tupperware which she looked after carefully. Four years ago when she moved into an aged care facility and her house was sold, my sister found some of those pink and pale green plastic containers still in her cupboard, and still in usable condition. I remember when cling wrap first appeared in our house. My mother used it sparingly and carefully. For a while she even washed each piece after use and laid it to dry so it could be reused. That seems funny now, but this was the era when groceries came home in brown paper bags, and sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper. Food scraps were fed to the chooks, or dug into the garden. Any leftover rubbish was wrapped in newspaper to be put in the (metal) rubbish bin. My parents were slow to change the habits they had learnt from childhoods spent in poorer and more frugal times. I, however, embraced the wonders of plastic with no thought to what happened to it after I discarded it. When I threw things out, I forgot about them. I bought plastic bags to line my bins, and different ones to freeze food in and different ones again as sandwich bags. When I emptied my cereal packet I threw the plastic bag in the bin. I wrapped things in cling wrap and then threw it away. It is only in the last couple of years that I have come face to face with the truth about plastic and taken a look at myself. Seeing terrible pictures of oceans with floating plastic, turtles and sea birds strangled by my throwaways brought me up short. It wasn’t enough to be remotely horrified. I needed to take my short-term glasses off and face the truth. I am doing this. I am polluting this ocean. I am killing these animals. If the major supermarkets and even the state government get it by banning single use plastic bags, then I should too. I’ve made changes. I don’t buy plastic anymore. Any that comes into my house is stored to be reused, sometimes as a rubbish bag, and that worries me. Increasingly I am wrapping scraps in newspaper instead. When I shop, I put my fruit and vegetables in cloth shopping bags. I would love to have chooks or a compost heap, but I’m not sure how I would manage either on my own. I wish one of my neighbours had them so I could give my green waste to them. In the meantime I still have a small amount of rubbish to put in my bin every week. Our society is still in the process of working out how to live without plastic. I want to live according to my beliefs and ethics, but there are times when I struggle. Living with MS and using a wheelchair, I find it difficult sometimes. Plastic can be just so darn convenient and sometimes helps make my life easier in little ways. I have to weigh up my desire to decrease my toxic impact on the environment against my physical ability, and it saddens me when I have to compromise. Slowly, however, I will keep making what changes I can. And maybe one day I’ll meet someone who will share my desire to keep chooks. 20 | MSWA BULLETIN AUTUMN 2019 MSWA BULLETIN AUTUMN 2019 | 21

Bulletin