Matthew Fong

Matthew came to IRS as a new graduate in 2018 after completing a Master of Speech Pathology and Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Psychology, from University of Melbourne.

Matthew has expertise in managing clients with:

• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Stroke
• Aphasia
• Cognitive-Communication Disorders
• Progressive Neurological Disorders

His particular areas of interest are working with people with aphasia and clients with social communication goals. Matthew was also responsible for getting our ABI Social Group off the ground at IRS. 

Matthew gets a lot out of supporting his clients in their return to work goals, public speaking, functional aphasia therapy, social communication groups – any functional goals that involve communication and getting out into the community!

Matthew believes communication is such a vital part of all aspects of our lives and by working in a community setting, he can help his clients improve their ability to communicate to do the things that they’re passionate about, in the contexts that matter most to them. Whether it’s working on social skills to make friends, improving rate of speech to get back to rapping, or role playing workplace communication tasks like ordering shisha flavours (these are all real life examples of client’s goals), working on functional communication goals is the ultimate inspiration for Matthew!

In addition to his client work, Matthew is the current Speech Pathology Clinical Lead and is also a Mental Health First Aider at IRS.

Outside of work, Matthew can be found spending time with his two pets:  Bonti the Cavoodle, and Biccky (short for Hibiscus) the Ragdoll. He’s a self-proclaimed sporting tragic when it comes to cricket and AFL. If he’s not playing amateur cricket during the summer, then he’s barracking for the Western Bulldogs in the winter. 

This year Matthew will celebrate 6 years with IRS.