Tom Mendelovits

Tom completed a Master of Speech Pathology at University of Melbourne in 2022, after a career as a librarian working in lifelong learning and community outreach in inner-Melbourne public libraries. He loved the public-facing element of the role and working with diverse communities which he now continues to enjoy working in community allied health. 

Tom has experience managing clients with:

• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Stroke
• Aphasia
• Acquired speech disorders (dysarthria and apraxia of speech) 
• Cognitive-communication disorders including disorders of consciousness
• Dysphagia (swallowing impairment)

Tom enjoys the challenge of working with clients in the community who have dysphagia (swallowing impairment) including providing carer and family training packages and working with the client’s individual eating and drinking goals.

He has a particular interest in aphasia (acquired language impairments) and working through the complexity of this condition in community contexts, whether it is verbally or with Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems.

Tom supports clients to return to work, through assisting them with their reading and writing goals and working with employers to set up suitable graded return to work programs. He also works with clients to regain confidence in the intelligibility and naturalness of their speech when it most matters to them, such as the dating scene!

Tom is really passionate about working with people towards functional and real-life goals, on their terms, and seeing the diversity of human life.

Tom speaks conversational Russian and is able to provide communication therapy in Russian. 

In his personal life, Tom is a holder of fifth grade black belt in kendo and instructs at the Melbourne University Kendo Club. He represented Victoria at national competitions and has trained in Korea and Japan. Tom also plays in at least two semi-retired indie bands and loves spending time with his young daughter and family.