2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
10/24/2016 | 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM | Establishing a Paediatric Hearing Service in Samoa | BGPOP Building 4A/B/C
Establishing a Paediatric Hearing Service in Samoa
Visits to Samoa by overseas audiologists began in 2007 by a local charity The Carabez Alliance. My wife Cristy and I began our visits in September 2008; we have now made 17 visits. During these visits, we assessed the hearing of children and fitted digital hearing aids to 65 children and some adults. The work was supported by the Australian overseas aid agency, AusAid. Further support came from the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children from 2010 onwards, and Genelle Cook and her colleagues joined us on our visits.
Training was provided to local staff in techniques of hearing assessment, hearing aid fitting procedures, repair of hearing aids, and the manufacture of earmoulds. Samoan staff visited Australia on two occasions, and Phonak Australia provided significant help in training and other informal support.
One of the strengths of the project was the leadership provided by the Head of the Senese Centre in Samoa, her deputy, and other staff. Parents were engaged with the service, and much effort was put into involving them. Late identification of children was a major challenge, but progress has been made in this area.
Although every effort was used to encourage the use of oral language, children were given support at school, and sign language was used to supplement support where necessary. Four children were fitted with cochlear implants, which were supplied at no charge by Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre. Older style bone anchored hearing aids donated by Cochlear were fitted on softbands where appropriate. Interesting to note the progression of children through the service and many of them have gained employment despite their hearing loss.
- Engaging parents of deaf children a hearing aid service
- Team building in a hearing aid service in a developing country
- Challenges in moving to a service provided by local staff
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Presenters/Authors
Philip Newall
(), Atune Hearing, philip.newall@ridbc.org.au;
Professor Newall is employed as a senior audiologist by Attune Hearing in Australia.
He was involved in establishing academic programs for audiologists in the Philippines, Manila and Beijing. He is Fellow of the Audiological Society of Australia and a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology.
Philip Newall has research interests in clinical audiology, especially in the area of amplification for the severely and profoundly hearing-impaired and in the epidemiology of deafness and tinnitus. He has written more than 100 articles in scientific journals and has been a chief investigator on research grants worth over A$3 million. He has made over 130 presentations at conferences in Australia and overseas.
He is an Emeritus Professor at Macquarie University, and a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle, and a Professorial Fellow at the Renwick Centre in the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in Sydney, Australia.
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Cristina Newall
(), Attune Hearing , cristynewall@gmail.com;
Cristy Newall qualified initially as a nurse and worked with deaf persons in the Philippines and has worked as an audiologist in Australia for 7 years. In the Philippines, she organised and taught sign language to deaf children and adults, and to volunteers for the Deaf. She also helped to establish and run the Lourdes Centre, which is a home for abandoned severely handicapped children. She is fluent in American Sign Language and published a “Sign Picture Vocabulary”. She has a Masters Special Education from De La Salle University in Manila and when she moved to Sydney, Cristy completed the Masters in Clinical Audiology from Macquarie University. She works as an audiologist at Concord Hospital and with Attune Hearing in Australia.
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Genelle Cook
(), Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, Genelle.Cook@ridbc.org.au;
Genelle Cook is a very experienced paediatric audiologist who is the Head of Jim Patrick Audiology Centre in the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children.
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