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10/09/2015  |   11:15 AM - 12:30 PM   |  Andrew Foster Auditorium

Hexagenarians Up! Aural Rehabilitation of Elderly Khmers with Disabling Deafness

The presentation describes a project for aural rehabilitation of elderly people with disabling deafness in Cambodia––countering the effects of hypoacusis in elderly Khmers by providing a community hearing-aid service and establishing self-help groups and a local domiciliary service for the elderly who are house-bound or hospitalized. The principal goal was to restore hearing in elderly people to counter the negative effects of hearing impairment on family and social integration and psychological well-being. The outcome provided hearing-impaired elderly people greater parity in society and a better quality of life. The innovative project partnered with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) while establishing liaison with local wats (Buddhist temples), which function as community centers in Cambodia. The project also aimed to build local educational capacity regarding hearing and deafness through raising awareness and enhancing the knowledge of ear-health care in elderly people and local communities in which they live. All Ears Cambodia provided a comprehensive rehabilitation service, offering hearing tests and hearing aids for older people suffering from presbyacusic loss. Types of hearing aids included analogue, digitally programmable, and fully digital instruments. In follow-up appointments, participants were encouraged to provide candid feedback, from which individual management strategies could be developed. These strategies included re-prescription of hearing aids, use of binaural hearing aids, ear mold modifications, further instruction regarding the management of the hearing instrument, and further counseling. The project also engaged in reduction of preventable ear disease and deafness through a parallel primary ear-health care service. The presentation includes evaluation of the project, with focus on effectiveness of the collaboration, the per-patient cost of services, and attainment of sustainability.

• Enable participants to understand the extend of ear disease and lack of access to hearing health care among elderly persons in Cambodia
• Make participants knowledgeable about how a collaboration amon an international foundation, an audiological facility in Cambodia, and a U.S. u niversity improved access to hearing health care for elderly Khmers (the predominant ethnic group in Cambodia)

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Jean Johnson (Primary Presenter), University of Hawaii, jeanj@hawaii.edu;
Dr. Jean Johnson has worked in the Pacific providing audiological services for more than four decades. She has been involved in newborn hearing screening since its earliest beginnings. She currently serves as the Principal Investigator for EHDI programs in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Territory of American Samoa. In 2013 she received the Antonia Braxon Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence.