Weekly Dose

Picture: Marion Vile (left) with Jane (right) 

Thank you, Mas. 

This week, Marion (Mas) Vile is retiring and drawing close to a long, fulfilling and notable career within this region. Mas has supported innumerable speech pathologists at all stages of their career since moving to Albury as a new graduate herself in 1981, and we couldn’t let this week pass without acknowledging and thanking Mas for all she has brought to our profession and health care in this region over this time. 

After graduating from Lincoln Institute in 1980, Mas took a leap of faith and applied for a job at Albury Base Hospital – despite not knowing where Albury was! Luckily, there were two new speech pathology positions on offer and so Mas and a close friend re-located to the border. At this time, there were two speech pathology positions at ‘the Base’ and one at Wodonga Hospital. These positions were generalist positions, seeing children at the Child Development and Guidance Unit which was in Mudge House in Olive St., screening children’s speech and language skills in schools across the region, setting up volunteer run articulation (speech) programmes across the region, from Albury to Griffith, Tumbarumba to Deniliquin! Mas and her colleague also worked with adults admitted to Albury Base, the rehab ward, Adamshurst Day Hospital and Mercy Hospital. 

In Mas’ first couple of years in the region she saw the number of speech pathology positions grow, the first rehabilitation unit built (now the Albury Community Health Centre in Smollet St.) and, in 1983, Mas became Head of Department and Regional Advisor for the Murray Health region of NSW. In 1992, Mas was offered what she refers to as her ‘dream role’ and formed part of the interdisciplinary team that established the South West Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service (SWBIRS) in Lavington. SWBIRS offered the opportunity to work in community based rehabilitation with a true interdisciplinary team, a team of bold thinkers who were willing to lead the way in developing specialist brain injury rehabilitation, including intensive residential rehab at ‘Tarkarri’, one of the first transitional rehabilitation living units in NSW. Establishing this service meant country people could access specialist rehabilitation close to home where previously, they would have had to reside in a capital city to access rehabilitation. 

In 2008, Mas commenced teaching in the undergraduate speech pathology program at CSU – lending her expertise to teaching students about acquired brain injury and, she took on the role of coordinating the clinical education program for a few years. In 2010, Mas was enticed back to the ‘new’ Albury Hospital and in 2011, was appointed as the inaugural speech pathologist in the new Albury Community Rehab team – Mas was back in a space she loved and through which, she has helped so many people re-gain their communication skills or, learn new ways of communicating.

Mas is recognised for her commitment to high quality, evidence based, person centred care. She advocates for people with communication impairment and can turn her hand to any aspect of our profession. She is also recognised for her positive attitude, great sense of fun, ability to coordinate memorable social events and, for being the consummate professional. She has mentored, coached and inspired so many health professionals and the ‘splashes of colour’ that Mas brings with her, will be missed. We wish Mas all the best for the next phase of life and thank her for all she has given to us and our region. 

AWH Speech Pathology Team.