NHS Lothian is coming together to celebrate the work, commitment and determination shown by its many health and social care clinical support workers.
Across the week of the 23 August 2021, we’ll shine the spotlight on some wonderful staff members who help keep our services ticking over day after day.
There are a wide variety of departments and locations that our Health and Social Care Workers are based in. Emma Mackenzie is one of them and works as a Speech and Language Therapy Assistant in Musselburgh Primary Care Centre.
Emma finished university with a degree in media and journalism before realising that it wasn’t quite the story for her! Emma then tried marketing – but it just didn’t reach her expectations! Finally, she realised her true passion, after working with children with additional support needs for a few years. It was here, where she truly learned what she wanted to do with her career.
Emma said: “After working with children in schools I became very interested in the communication side of this work. I spoke with some speech and language therapists to find out more about their work. A few weeks later I spotted a job advertised for a Speech and Language Therapy Assistant and decided to go for it! I got the job, was instantly immersed in the field and absolutely loved it.”
“I really enjoy being a support worker. The variety in the role means every day is different, as it’s dependent on what each Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) needs.”
The typical tasks Emma carries out daily are:
- Making up and sending out resources for patients
- Calling families to check-in/arrange appointments
- Discussing cases with SLTs and helping prepare plans and resources
- Carrying out therapy sessions from an SLT’s plan
- Fixing and trialling technology, this includes supporting the services Facebook page
- Supporting anything else the SLTs require
“There’s always lots of opportunities to learn new skills, often to support the therapist’s work. For example, when the pandemic hit I used some of the time to train myself up in ‘Near Me’ and devise activities other therapists can use.”
One of the main highlights of the job for Emma is seeing the development in the children she works with. She said “The aspect I love most about my job is working with the children and families. Being able to offer regular sessions to families when the SLT is pressed for time, and seeing children improve their skills and confidence brings me a huge amount of job satisfaction.”
