4October2017

NDIS: highly detrimental to childrens

outcomes
The long delay in resolving these matters and addressing the
funding deficiency is precipitating market failure at a rapid
rate. Service closures and reductions are already occurring,
which will impact on participant choice and on childrens
outcomes.

When will Australia hear this?

Millions of dollars are being spent on the governments Closing
the Gap programs, yet hearing loss as a factor in the success
of these programs goes largely unnoticed.

Smoke alarm subsidy scheme dumped

Advocates said this was just the latest example of disability
services being harmed in NSW in the state's rush to transition
to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

My implant journey
Chris Rawlins started writing My Implant Journey to document
what I went through in the process of being implanted with
the Cochlear device and fitted with the Cochlear speech
processor.

Global hearing aids sales to grow 6

percent in 6 years
India, China, Bangladesh, Australia, Pakistan, Indonesia,
Japan, South Korea and Thailand are amongst the leading
markets for hearing aids.

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, community, sea, and waters where we live and work. We pay our respects to
elderspast,presentandfutureandvaluethecontributionsIndigenousAustraliansmakeinoursociety.Weacknowledgethechallengefor
IndigenousleadersandfamiliestoovercometheunacceptablyhighlevelsofearhealthissuesamongfirstAustralians.
NDIS: children's support failing at 'rapid rate' due to
underfunding
Christopher Knaus, The Guardian

An inquiry has been told the NDIS fundamentally misunderstands hearing loss in children. Photograph:
BSIP/UIG via Getty Images

Support services for hearing impaired children are failing at a rapid rate due to underfunding
from the national disability insurance scheme, an inquiry has heard.

The disability sector has warned current NDIS funding is leaving each child about $10,000 short of
what is needed each year for a comprehensive and multidisciplinary language development
program.

The advocacy body First Voice says that early intervention listening and spoken language services
have been making up the shortfall out of their own pockets. But its chairman, Michael Forwood,
told a parliamentary inquiry into the NDIS that making up the shortfall was becoming less feasible
as more and more underfunded children entered the scheme.

The long delay in resolving these matters and addressing the funding deficiency is precipitating
market failure at a rapid rate, Forwood told the inquiry on Wednesday. Service closures and
reductions are already occurring, which will impact on participant choice and on childrens
outcomes.

Forwood also criticised the significant delays in referring children to support services, which he
said can take up to three years. He described that as highly detrimental to childrens outcomes.

The scheme, he said, fundamentally misunderstood hearing loss in children. By measuring only
observable impairment and disability, it missed hidden hearing impairment in early infancy.
The NDIA (National Disability Insurance Agency) do not understand hearing loss in children and
they do not understand the basic principles of effective early intervention for children who are
deaf and hearing impaired to put them on the path that they should be entitled to choose and
enjoy, he said.

The way the NDIS approaches young children is vital to its design. The schemes early childhood
early intervention pathway was hoped to maximise a childs ability to participate in the community
and economy, and is best described as an investment.

In most states, the government relies on specialist, non-government partner agencies, which act
as the first port of call for children and their families, and link them with appropriate early
intervention supports. But the inquiry heard no such partner agency exists in South Australia.

CanDo4Kids, an Adelaide-based service, blamed that, in part, on the NDIA and the way it ran the
tender process, which left limited options for organisations to bid for the position.

A key selling point for the NDIS was that it gave individuals more choice and control over their
futures. But JFA Purple Orange, an advocacy group for people with a disability, warned problems
with the roll out of the NDIS were putting that principle at risk. Its CEO, Robbi Williams, said the
NDIA was under pressure to meet tight deadlines for the schemes roll out. He said the pressures
were causing the NDIA to stray away from the individualised, person-centred approach it was
supposed to take to providing support. He said this places extraordinary pressure on the NDIA to
hit numeric targets and, in so doing, to not have the fair opportunity to undertake an authentic,
person-centred approach with each person in the scheme and their family.

Williams also warned the bilateral agreements assumed state-based disability support services
would be withdrawn as the NDIS rolls out. We are concerned there is a yanking out of resource
from existing services at state level that leaves families short.

One Victorian-based early intervention provider, Kalparrin, warned that the system had become
inaccessible, impersonal and rigid in its interactions with families and services.

What weve found with the majority of our clients what they have come up against is a highly
systemised, highly protective and very difficult to engage with system, based on telephone calls
and rigid procedures, which is the exact opposite of the very sector that the scheme is designed
to service, said Kalparrins chief executive, Mark Baigent.

A Kalparrin team manager, Teigan Leonard said her local NDIS office did not have a phone
number. For a family to contact someone about their plan, they had to dial a general 1800
number, ask that an email be sent to their planner and wait for a call that sometimes never came.

We live 800 metres from our (NDIS) office and we spend 99% of our time speaking to an office
in South Australia, Baigent said

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/27/ndis-childrens-support-failing-at-rapid-rate-due-to-underfunding
The Deafness Forum of Australia presents the 19th annual Libby Harricks Memorial Oration

Hearing Loss and Dementia

Speaker: Dr Piers Dawes, University of Manchester, UK

Interest is growing in the

association between hearing
impairment and dementia.
Earlier this year, the Lancet released a report
saying that hearing loss was one of nine factors
that could be changed in midlife to reduce the
incidence of dementia.

This year, in the 19th annual Libby Harricks

Memorial Oration, Dr Piers Dawes will discuss
possible links between hearing loss and When
cognitive health. He will ask whether effective
5:30pm - 7:00pm
prevention, identification and management of
hearing problems represent an opportunity to
Thursday 19 October 2017
optimise well-being and quality of life in older Venue
age.
Melbourne Convention and
The 19th annual Libby Harricks Memorial Exhibition Centre
Oration is part of the 17th Alzheimers Australia
Biennial National Dementia Conference. Cost
The oration honours the memory of the first Free
President of Deafness Forum of Australia. For
her work on behalf of hearing-impaired people, For all booking information,
Libby Harricks was made a Member of the please email us at
Order of Australia in 1990.
hello@deafnessforum.org.au
This years oration is proudly supported by Members of Audiology Australia can earn 1.5 CPD Points
Audiology Australia. (Category 1) AudA No CPD1718 078

Dr Piers Dawes is a senior lecturer in audiology at the University of Manchester. He is

a developmental neuropsychologist with a PhD in experimental psychology from the
University of Oxford. Dr Dawes research interests include the epidemiology of hearing
loss, dementia, hearing genetics, treatments for hearing loss including hearing aid
uptake and hearing aid benefit, and the impact of hearing impairment on development
and quality of life.
When will Australia hear this?
Chris Perry, The Australian
A report from a parliamentary inquiry into the hearing health of Australians revealed what those
working in the field of ear health have known for decades. The prevalence of otitis media (middle
ear) infections among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is at crisis point.

The report stated that at any one time up to 90 per cent of children in remote communities are -
experiencing an ear infection.

Hearing loss begins with prolonged fluid in the middle ear in childhood often associated with these
infections, which often remain undetected because there are no acute symptoms such as pain,
irritability or fever.

The 2011 Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report found that over a six-year period, 74 per
cent of school-age children in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands (APY) and Tjarutja
lands failed a standard hearing test and more than 30 per cent had eardrum perforations. The
worst-affected children met the hearing impairment criteria for government disability support.

Glue ear still persists at an alarming rate in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and it is
not just a remote problem.

Australias first Aboriginal surgeon, Kelvin Kong, and his colleagues see many Aboriginal children
in the Hunter New England Local Health District with ear disease, as do healthcare workers in
many other urban areas.

Those of us committed to improving the situation are frustrated by the fact Australias general
population is probably in the top three in the world in terms of how we look after our hearing, but
when it comes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were in the bottom three.

Delays in the diagnosis and treatment of hearing problems have serious consequences. If children
cant hear, they miss essential learning and development opportunities. If they cant learn at
school their life trajectory changes for the worse. Hearing problems can lead to depression,
negative social interactions and ultimately substance abuse problems, jail and suicide.

Millions of dollars are being spent on the governments Closing the Gap programs, yet hearing loss
as a factor in the success of these programs goes largely unnoticed. There have been
documented cases of aural myiasis maggots in infected ears. I was shocked to see this in
Cherbourg back in 1987, but more shocked to hear it still occurs in Australia. Cherbourg is a town
and locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Cherbourg in Queensland.

Last year, Northern Territory psychologist Damien Howard gave evidence at the royal commission
into the child protection and youth detention systems of the Northern Territory, reporting on
testing of inmates undertaken by the corrections department in 2011. They found that 94 per
cent of inmates in Darwin Prison and Alice Springs Prison had significant hearing loss. Thirty
years on, some of the children I saw in Cherbourg are now probably in jail.

Efforts to improve social determinants, particularly in the area of housing, and the cultural
competency of the medical profession and the wider population will help.

For three decades Professor Paul Torzillo has played a key role in improving housing and health
conditions in Aboriginal communities around Australia. He helped develop the Healthy Living
Practices in 1985 to describe the functioning hardware needed in a house to provide for healthy
living. Through Housing for Health projects more than 7500 homes have been tested to identify
the work required to get those houses up to scratch.

This work has shown that only 35 per cent of the houses assessed nationally had a functioning
shower, with hot and cold water, working taps and rose and wastewater drainage. Its no wonder
that parents struggle to keep kids clean in these conditions.

The tragedy of hearing loss is that, like blindness, it is completely preventable.

The late Fred Hollows, Hugh Taylor and other doctors have done a remarkable job gaining support
to end avoidable blindness. Thanks to their advocacy the prevalence of active trachoma among
children in at-risk communities fell from 21 per cent in 2008 to 4.6 per cent in 2015 it is now
virtually eradicated.

But in 2017, we are still unable to monitor the national prevalence of ear disease, its geographic
distribution, screening rates, wait times between referrals or whether timely and appropriate
treatments are being delivered. Data are unlinked within various silos and infrequently released.

We know that targeted interventions work and we want to see a ministerial working group formed
to elevate this issue at the national level and provide evidence-based advice to government.

A national approach to improving hearing health depends on the commitment of governments

across Australia, and there is a groundswell of support building.

We must do more to ensure the children with ear infections that we are seeing today do not end
up deaf, uneducated, jobless, incarcerated or experiencing mental illness and suicide 30 years
from now.

The author of this article, Professor Chris Perry is president of the Australian Society of
Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/when-will-australia-hear-this/news-
story/11e1d1492b6d47352d777019e013baea
Global hearing aids sales to grow 6 percent in 6 years
INDORE, India
The global hearing aids market is projected to rise by 6 percent by 2023. An increasing aged
population, high prevalence of hearing loss, technological advancements in hearing aids,
increasing awareness about hearing aids and increasing healthcare expenditure are some of the
factors driving the global hearing aids market.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 5 percent of the global population is
suffering from some form of hearing disability. More than 42 percent of people over 50 years of
age and 70 percent of people over 70 are affected with some form of hearing disability.

Hearing impairment results in a global economic burden of more than $750 billion every year
according to WHO. The ageing population is likely to increase prevalence rates of people with
hearing loss. A majority of the people with hearing disability are in low and middle-income
regions like South Asia, Asia Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa.

Increasing awareness about new technology, high disposable income populations, and ageing
populations are the prime factors driving the hearing implant market. Hearing implants bypass
damaged hair cells within the ear and deliver electric current directly to the auditory nerve.
According to Copenhagen based medical device technology manufacturer, William Demant,
average demand for hearing implants is increasing by an average 12 percent a year in North
America and Europe. However, cost is an impediment to growth for the hearing implant market.

Asia Pacific is the fastest growing hearing aids market. India, China, Bangladesh, Australia,
Pakistan, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand are amongst the leading markets for
hearing aids.

From Markets Insider, http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/Global-Hearing-Aids-Market-

Anticipated-to-Grow-at-6-Till-2023-Occams-Business-Research-Consulting-Pvt-Ltd-1002383384

You can find the detailed report at: http://www.occamsresearch.com/hearing-aids-market


Audiometry Nurses provide comprehensive, standardised and professional hearing health services
to a variety of age groups. This includes collaboration with newborn hearing screening programs,
paediatric screening, health history, otoscopy, tympanometry and pure tone audiometry (including
masking) for children and adults, interpretation of assessment results, and appropriate
management and referral.

Audiometry Nurses work in a variety of settings including community health centres, medical
practices, audiology clinics or occupational screening programs. They are involved in hearing
health promotion, occupational hearing screening, community education, hearing conservation
programs, client advocacy, student mentoring and nursing research.

Audiometry Nurses assist with the early identification of ear disease and hearing impairment,
participate in case management and appropriate referral to speech pathologists, medical
practitioners, audiologists, hearing support organisations, other allied health professionals and
educators including itinerant support teachers for hearing.

Regular peer review ensures that Audiometry Nurses maintain professional standards of clinical
practice. They maintain professional networks and have established links with hearing related
self-help and community organisations.

The Audiometry Nurses Association of Australia represents the professional interests of

Audiometry Nurses, facilitates ongoing education, and provides a forum for ongoing education and
professional support and development. The Association also produces guidelines for professional
practice and regular review of clinical standards. www.anaa.asn.au

http://dementia2017.org/
NDIS: Fears for safety after hearing-impaired smoke
alarm subsidy ends in NSW
By ABC social affairs correspondent Norman Hermant

When Apenisa Matairavula goes to bed at night in his Sydney home, he can rest soundly knowing
his smoke alarm will wake him if there is a fire.

But it's not an ordinary smoke alarm. It uses a bright strobe light and a shaker pad that vibrates
under his pillow to wake him up.

Mr Matairavula is deaf. A standard noise-based alarm would be useless.

"I can see the flashing light, and I can also feel the tactile vibrations," he said through an Auslan
sign-language interpreter. "I definitely feel safer."

Mr Matairavula had the device installed through the Smoke Alarm Subsidy Scheme in New South
Wales. Over the past six years, the scheme has helped more than 2,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing
people purchase specialised alarms. It ended in June as part of the state's transition to the
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). For those who aren't eligible for the NDIS, they
may have to pay the full price for the specialised alarms. They cost up to $700 more than 20
times the cost of a standard one.

"I think that all deaf people, and people who are hard of hearing, need to have the smoke alarms
in their houses," Mr Matairavula said.

The Deaf Society helped administer the subsidy scheme in NSW and it now fears many who aren't
eligible for the NDIS will miss out.

And it says others, like those who are hard of hearing, don't know how to access a subsidy for the
alarms under the federally run My Aged Care program, which is for those over the age of 65.
Photo: Leonie Jackson said the issue was about "life and death".

"Our concern is those people who aren't able to access the NDIS or My Aged Care, to be able to
get the specialised alarm," The Deaf Society CEO Leonie Jackson said. "And if they don't have
access to these devices, they potentially could die."

The NSW Department of Family and Community Services has told the ABC $2 million was
allocated to pay for the scheme in 2011, and implementation was completed in 2016-17.

"Under the NDIS, people who are deaf or hard of hearing will be able to have adapted smoke
alarms included in their plan," a statement said.

But advocacy groups such as Better Hearing Australia are worried many people won't be able to
get a subsidy.

Photo: Sue Daw's alarm was paid for through a subsidy in the ACT.

"I do worry a lot that the people that I meet working in Better Hearing have not got a lot of
money," said Sue Daw, who is hard of hearing and works with the organisation in Canberra. Ms
Daw has a specialised alarm in her home, paid for through a subsidy in the ACT. "A lot of hard-
of-hearing people may find that buying an expensive smoke alarm may not be their top priority."
Advocates said this was just the latest example of disability services being harmed in NSW in the
state's rush to transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Disability Advocacy Network
Australia CEO Mary Mallett said "The NSW Government is willfully ignoring the fact that this loss of
funding will have a direct damaging impact on NSW residents with disability."

Other organisations worry this is just the beginning, and other states that currently subsidise
specialised smoke alarms will also eliminate their subsidy programs when they transition to the
NDIS.

"It's about life and death," Ms Jackson said. "As a community, we're responsible for this."

Changes to Hearing Awareness Week next year

World Hearing Day, presented by the World Health Organisation, is scheduled for Saturday 3
March 2018. Hearing Awareness Week in Australia is held in the lead up to the international Day,
beginning on Sunday 25 February 2018.

These events highlight the importance and fragility of hearing, ways to preserve and protect it,
and the cost of hearing loss to individuals and society.

New website launched in Canberra

https://www.actdrc.org.au/
School experiences of students with disability - national survey
Children and Young People with Disability Australia is again conducting a national survey to gain
information about school experiences of students with disability and to learn more about what
support is being provided. The information obtained about the direct experiences of students with
disability will be shared with governments to progress much needed reforms.

The survey is available at http://education2017.questionpro.com/

It closes Monday 16 October.

By Chris Rawlins
I started writing this account of My Implant Journey to document what I went through in the
process of being implanted with the Cochlear device and fitted with the Cochlear speech
processor.

As I progressed I found that there is not any real instruction manual given before starting out so
decided to try to add more information. My hope is that my story may help others understand the
process, what to expect and how they may be affected. My Implant Journey is long, sometimes
very rough but it is A Dream Coming True.

Chris Rawlins lives in Broken Hill, 500km from Adelaide and 1200km from Sydney. He worked in
underground mining in a noisy and humid environment that wasnt always conducive to earplugs
or earmuffs. He was doing progressive damage to his hearing. He was no longer communicating
with family and friends. Old work mates were dismissed or avoided. On 26 July 2017 he was
admitted to Memorial Hospital for his implant operation.

Chris asked us to share his story. You can view and download it at
http://deafnessforum.org.au/find-out-about
Try out your idea for NDIS funding
The National Disability Insurance Scheme will provide grant funding next year for Information,
Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) activities in NSW, SA and the ACT.

In preparation for these ILC grant opportunities, the NDIA offers an informal opportunity for
interested organisations to:
Try out their idea for an ILC activity, and
Get written feedback.

Organisations can submit their idea by Friday 13 October. You must use the form that can be
downloaded from the web page listed below.
https://ilctoolkit.ndis.gov.au/try-ilc-idea?utm_campaign=e4735e0a06-
EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_02&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Information%2C%20Linkages%20and%20Capaci
ty%20Building%20updates&utm_term=0_09639bbccd-e4735e0a06-51063225

Grouse video of airplanes https://www.youtube.com/embed/0px9HFIVYjY?feature=player_embedded

Know someone who might like to receive One in Six?

To subscribe, drop a line to hello@deafnessforum.org.au
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