Part Two: Australian Hearing in the community

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24 Australian Hearing Annual report 2009 Our Community Service Obligation program (continued) which aims to improve audibility of high frequency speech sounds for clients who are unable to detect or use high frequency speech information via a conventional hearing aid. We are collecting data on those clients who are fitted with this technology to evaluate the outcomes, but initial indications have been positive for those clients whose hearing loss indicates a need for this feature. We continued to upgrade other clients to the mid-range technology hearing aids, such as the Siemens Cielo 2, as a minimum standard. These aids have features such as greater speech enhancement and noise reduction and automatic adaptive directional microphones. Adults with complex needs who have appropriate listening goals were also fitted with new FM systems, enabling them to hear across greater distances and cope better with competing background noise. Evaluation of service delivery to provide the best hearing care In 2008, we surveyed adult clients who have severe communication impairment, as part of our commitment to regularly evaluate outcomes for CSO adult clients. This survey was identical to that of a previous survey in 2006 of adult clients with severe and profound hearing losses. Responses to the 2008 survey indicated that these clients report equally high levels of service satisfaction as those previously surveyed. They also reported a greater degree of perceived benefit from their devices across all listening situations, compared to the previously surveyed adults who had greater degrees of hearing loss. As some of the clients surveyed have additional physical or visual disabilities which impact not only on their communication, but also on their ability to manage their hearing aids, it is understandable that aid management issues were reported more frequently than by the group with severe and profound hearing losses. We also collected and analysed International Outcomes Inventory – Hearing Aids data in this survey. The clients surveyed in 2008, who have lesser degrees of hearing loss, reported using their devices less than those with severe and profound hearing losses in 2006. The scores on the two surveys were very similar in all other measures. See Graph Two below. Graph Two: International Outcomes Inventory – Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) – Mean Scores Comparison with USA, CSO Adult 2006 (=>80dB) and CSO Adult 2008 (
Part Two: Australian Hearing in the community 25 May Howard, client Australian Hearing Perth Turning 105 on 1 July 2009, and celebrating her birthday with the local community and close family, May Howard is one of our oldest clients. May grew up on the Beagle Bay Mission, north of Broome, run by the Catholic Church. It was there that she met her husband and raised her family. Her son, Jimmy Howard, is a country singer well known around the Broome area. Peter Howard, May’s second son, runs his own tourist business outside of Broome. May has many grandchildren and great grandchildren and lives with her great niece Jo, who is her carer. One of May’s grandchildren, Selina, is also a health worker at Broome Aboriginal Medical Service. May first noticed problems hearing other people in the May Howard with audiologist Sally Regan, at the Broome Aboriginal Medical Service. 1980s. She had particular trouble hearing her family and when shopping. May has a severe to profound hearing loss, but prefers to use one aid. Since using her Cielo 2P aid, she is able to better hear and converse with her family. We see May at the Broome AHSPIA site, where we work closely with the staff of Broome Aboriginal Medical Service to provide hearing services in the local community. L–R Jade Frederiksen (AHSPIA Audiologist), Nikkita Yunupingu, Aileen Andrews and Maryanne Arrieta (Aboriginal Health Worker /Community Audiometrist) from Darwin at Ngukurr Community Education Centre, Roper River in the Northern Territory. The girls are wearing their new ‘Hearing Hats’ which are fitted with bone conductor hearing aids. AHSPIA audiologists visiting remote Indigenous communities issue a large number of hearing hats to assist children with conductive hearing loss, particularly to hear in class. These students are supported by the Special Education teachers and classroom teachers, who work in conjunction with our audiologists.
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Part Two: Australian Hearing in the community

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