Page 1845 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 19 August 1992
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Madam Speaker, services to children are vital to their development, and early detection and intervention is critical for a child with a hearing impairment. In the first three years of life a child will acquire most of the language structure that forms the building blocks for communication, learning and vocation. In the ACT child health clinics provide hearing screening for infants during their first weeks, with specific testing at six weeks and seven months. The Community Nursing Service provides hearing assessment for primary school children as part of the school health program. It also offers hearing assessment through its audiometry services. This is a recent initiative designed to detect and manage hearing loss as soon as possible.
Madam Speaker, ACT Health aims to help prevent deafness through the provision of free immunisation services which target major and vaccine preventable causes of deafness such as measles and rubella. Beyond prevention and detection, ACT Health also provides services for children with hearing loss through the Child Health and Development Service. Child Health medical officers provide developmental assessment and monitoring services for children with conductive hearing loss relating to middle ear disease. Speech pathologists, whose expertise lies in the area of communication, develop remedial programs for children with hearing loss. Their aim is to maximise the development of communication and speech. They frequently begin this process with children as young as four months of age, and they maintain this contact with the children throughout their developing years and into school.
The Government recognises the importance of a well-coordinated approach to meeting the needs of these children. The Government has encouraged a team approach involving all relevant departments, the private sector and the Commonwealth's hearing service. Services cater for the full range of childhood hearing problems, including those less severe but equally important transient hearing losses. Our services are responsive to community needs and are available in health centres throughout the ACT. Through adopting a three-pronged approach of prevention, early detection and intervention, the Government is actively contributing to meeting the special needs of people with deafness. The Government is also committed to the provision of quality educational services for children with deafness. Special education programs are available to children as soon as their deafness is detected, sometimes in the first years of life. These services continue from preschool through to secondary college and strive to support the deaf student in open education settings and in special units.
Madam Speaker, the Government's commitment to providing optimal education opportunity for the deaf student reaps benefits as these students enter the work force. In its role as a major employer in the ACT, this Government is formulating and implementing sound equal employment opportunity policies throughout the ACT Government Service. The 1990-1992 EEO report lists a number of aims and objectives directly addressing the needs of people with disabilities, including the hearing impaired. These aims and objectives include: Ensuring that people with disabilities can access and exit their workplace - for example, for the hearing impaired individual visual warning of fire will be considered, and the acquisition of specifically adapted equipment such as telecommunication devices; ensuring that appropriate recruitment procedures are in place to allow people with disabilities to be recruited to the ACT Government Service; the promotion of the principle of reasonable adjustment to all managers and other staff, which means that reasonable adjustments can be made to the individual work duties or
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