Speech pathologists honoured Talk about a winning mentality
A HEALTH business established to help children access speech pathology services in remote and regional centres in North Queensland will be expanded nationally and internationally if the plans of its founders, Julie Sexton and Jenna Morello, are realised.
TalkHQ Speech Pathology began at Ayr in 2014 as TalkNQ, recently changing its name to reflect the wider ambitions of the company.
The business received the Champions Award at the NQ Chambers Business Awards on Friday, as well as being a finalist in the Employees Choice and Business Community award categories, while Ms Morello was also a finalist in the Young Business Person Award.
The speech pathologists teamed up in the sugar farming and milling town after realising they shared a passion for helping children access services, particularly in smaller centres such as their own.
As a young girl Ms Morello knew the difficulties parents and children faced because of the impact it had on her family. She said her aunt and uncle had to stop work to travel and take their child to therapy.
“That sparked my interest in speech. I couldn’t fathom why people had to travel to access high quality speech pathology,” Ms Morello said.
“I wanted that equality ( of access to services) across North Queensland. It shouldn’t depend on where you live.”
With Ms Sexton, who had established a clinic in a room of her father’s dental practice in Ayr in 2012, the speech pathologists set about putting their plans into action.
Clinics have been established in Ayr, Townsville, Charters Towers, Ingham, Bowen and Palm Island with services to be extended to Hughenden shortly.
“We are starting to really spread our wings,” Ms Sexton said.
“We have clinicians based at most centres and we are looking to recruit three more therapists to join our team.”
Ms Sexton said they had grown from three people to having 17 staff.
“This only the beginning. The ultimate plan is to go national and international to really promote the message of trying to build language and literature for children, especially before they go to school,” Ms Sexton said. “This really sets up children for when they start school.”
The speech pathologists are looking at models to take TalkHQ national, possibly through franchising.