Page 2579 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 24 August 1993
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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 assessments through its audiometry services. These services are designed to detect and enable management of hearing loss as soon as possible.
ACT Health aims to help prevent deafness by providing free immunisation services which target 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, and they frequently begin this process with children as young as four months of age. They maintain contact with the children through their developing years.
The Government recognises the importance of a well-coordinated approach to meeting the needs of these children and has encouraged a team approach involving all relevant departments, the private sector and the Commonwealth's hearing service. Services provided through this approach cater for the full range of childhood hearing problems, including those less severe but equally important transient hearing losses.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the Government is also committed to the provision of quality educational services for hearing impaired children. Special education programs are available to children as soon as their deafness is detected. These services continue from preschool through to secondary college and strive to support the deaf student in open education settings and in special units. Through adopting the three-pronged approach of prevention, early detection and intervention, the Government is actively working to meet the special needs of people who are hearing impaired. Information on these services is available in health centres throughout the ACT.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the Government intends to continue its demonstrated commitment to, and support for, people with impaired hearing by maintaining linkages with Australian Hearing Services, a major provider of services to adults, and through its cooperation with the non-government services, community groups and the private sector. I present the following paper:
Deafness Awareness Week - Ministerial statement, 24 August 1993.
I move:
That the Assembly takes note of the paper.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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