News & Events
Food for Thought (Managing Complex Dysphagia in the Community) Durham, 5 August 2010
To the beautiful city of Durham for a one-day conference organised by the Tees, Esk and Wear Vallyes NHS Foundation Trust where we were able to showcase our two forthcoming books on Dysphagia by Naomi Cocks and Celia Harding. The event attracted about 120 delegates from a range of disciplines including nurses, dieticians, SLTs and physiotherapists. Even for novices like Jim and myself, the presentations were illuminating. Jim Coyle from the University of Pittsburgh gave two talks, the first on respiration, respiratory conditions and dysphagia, and the second on community management and multidisciplinary working. Lynn Gibson from the Northumberland Physiotherapy Service gave a very thought-provoking presentation on how to identify distress cues in people with severely limited communication. Before the group split into two for workshops, Paula Leslie (also from the University of Pittsburgh but formerly from Newcastle) gave a presentation on the ‘why, what, how, when and why’ of videofluoroscopy. It was great to be involved with this event and many thanks to Hannah Crawford and Julie Bake for our invitation and the smooth-running of the day.
Clinical Education Conference, 31 August to 2 September 2010, City University, London
We will be at this great event for both days, and are very much looking forward to meeting delegates. Again, we are taking the opportunity to display our growing lists of forthcoming titles, especially those originating from City researchers and clinicians − The Impact of Communication Disability Across the Lifespan, edited by Katerina Hilari and Nicola Botting, and Naomi and Celia’s Dysphagia books (see above).
Social Perspectives in Acquired Communication Disorders: Colloquium 15−16 June 2010, UCL
J&R Press was proud to sponsor this colloquium and I was there both days. The event, organised by Steven Bloch and Suzanne Beeke from UCL, and Nick Miller from Newcastle attracted 25 invited researchers from as far afield as Australia and Sweden − which led to some very interesting discussions about issues such as funding!
The presentations covered a range of topics around the theme of social perspectives in acquired communication disorder, from civic participation to how perceptions of self change, from therapy for anomia to recyling in conversational interaction to name just a few. Breakout sessions looked at the clinical/research interface and research methods and questions, and again provided an opportunity for spirited discussion.
I am glad to say the sponsor money went towards the catering, which was plentiful and excellent (although I am not sure anyone will want a Danish pastry for quite some time) and our thanks to Nicola Harding for organising this for us. It was a great chance for us to meet so many people interested in this growing area of research and clinical practice.
UCL Speech and Science Library
While we were at UCL Jim and I took the opportunity to meet with Librarian Stevie Russell and her colleague Breege Whiten, who told us lots of interesting things about how library services worked and what publishers need to keep in mind. Stevie very kindly wrote a bit about us for the library blog − see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/blog/hcs/2010/06/15/a-new-publisher-for-speech-language-therapy/
Stevie is moving to Roehampton at the end of July after 12 years at UCL, and we wish her every success in her new role.
March 2010
We are very proud to have been awarded Speechwoman’s Site of the Month Award for March 2010. Speechwoman says:
'Without doubt, Speechwoman knows promise when she sees it! So she's keeping a close eye on J&R Press who offer researchers and academics in human communication science a platform for publishing their works. Her tip is that this new company is going to be a winner in the skilled, experienced hands of Jim and Rachael Wilkie. Authors, if you have an SLP/SLT manuscript up your sleeve, or a terrific book idea, contact J&R Press. They have much to offer!' (see http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/interesting2010.htm)
Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Research Day 4 March 2010
Jim and I haven’t had the chance to look around Newcastle for about 15 years, but what a difference. Here is a bright, busy and buzzy city, where a lot of regeneration has gone on but where the past hasn’t been swept away. So gracious sweeps of impressive stone edifices live side-by-side with modern glass or multi-coloured buildings, and it all seems to work very well. A pleasure to visit.
And what about the Research Day? Very much like Newcastle, actually: bright, busy and buzzy. The organisation was superb, the food plentiful, and the presentations were all thought-provoking and intensely interesting.
Hazel Roddam, deputy chair of the RCSLT, was kind enough to mention J&R Press in her presentation about the research environment for SLTs. Talking about the need for dissemination and the need to encourage clinicians to submit to peer-reviewed publications, she said how important it is that SLTs publish and said that it would be “a strength to work with them [J&R Press] in the future”.
We also unfurled our banner for the first time, and had a table with flyers and some sample covers for people to look at. We had some great conversations with people interested in what we want to do − all in all, a very good day. Thank you, Royal College.
And talking about Hazel Roddam, when I worked for John Wiley & Sons Ltd, I commissioned her and Jemma Skeat for a book on evidence-based practice. This has just been published as Embedding Evidence-based Practice in Speech and Language Therapy: International Examples. The SBN is 0470 743298, and the book is very sensibly priced at £29.99. Check it out on Amazon or on the Wiley website.
ASTLIP Conference 13 March
Rachael is going to be at the event at lunchtime on Saturday 13 March, handing out flyers and generally talking to people.
