Making meaningful connections.

“I wanted to work with kids and help them with their communication, be able to talk to people and communicate in other ways when they couldn't get their message across.”  

Lara is a Victoria Regional Manager for Early Start Australia and covers a range of clinics across the region. She’s been at Early Start for just over 4 years as a ‘speechie’ (speech therapist) and finds it incredibly rewarding, especially working with children.

“My favourite thing is listening and hearing kids laughing and being happy and enjoying it.”  

She also enjoys the opportunities that come with working for an organisation as vast as APM. “I think being part of a bigger organisation has so much more opportunity to develop from a career perspective and leadership. Sometimes I speak to my team and say you've got clinical pathways to specialised, or operational, if that's the way that you want to go.” 

“It's really valuable to have leaders with allied health backgrounds, because it allows us to share with our team the skills we've developed — and for the team to know that clinical skills are the priority, and helping our children and families is what's really important.”  

Another rewarding aspect of Lara’s role is being a mentor and enabling those around her to follow their own paths. And she’s extremely proud of their achievements.  

“I love watching therapists learn and develop and seeing them flourish. We've had some that have really done amazing things. That gives me so much pride when I see them growing and developing the skills — and taking on mentoring and leadership; finding their little niche.” 

Lara also finds fulfilment in the way her team works together, for the good of the clients they help, but also the support they provide each other — the whole team makes every day meaningful.   

“It's a really supportive, collaborative environment and everyone's there to help each other, not only to help our kids and families. I feel like I'm making a real difference here.”