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10/27/2018  |   2:00 PM - 3:00 PM   |  Kramer Lecture Theater 2

Samoa Hearing Services

Establishing a sustainable audiological service to a small Pacific Island, over a ten-year period, has presented many challenges. This presentation will address the many strategies adopted to do this work. A group of audiologists have made twenty visits, for seven days each, at their own expense to Samoa since 2007. Funding for this service has been a problem, but several sources have been identified and the Rotary organization, both in Australia and Samoa, have been very helpful in recent years. It is essential to establish close links with local organizations involved with hearing health care and to provide training and ongoing support for local colleagues. Hearing aid and cochlear implant manufacturers have assisted with the provision of devices and equipment. Audiologists in Australia working with Attune Hearing and others in New Zealand have collected used hearing aids and equipment. It has been possible to assess the hearing of Samoan children and provide high power hearing aids for over two hundred children, to fit them using a high standard and to be able to maintain them. Involvement of parents and teachers has been important, especially where children live in a remote location far from the main clinic. Funds to cover traveling expenses for such children and their parents are necessary due to the low income of many Samoans. The importance of links with local medical staff, especially otologists is another factor. It is hoped that a description of this experience will assist others involved in similar work.

• Establishing services in a small Pacific island
• Challenges in providing sustainable services
• A hearing health care plan for Samoa

Presentation:
18607_9793PhilipNewall.pdf

Handouts:
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Philip Newall (Primary Presenter,Author), Atune Hearing, philip.newall@ridbc.org.au;
Professor Newall is employed as a senior audiologist by Attune Hearing in Australia. He was involved in establishing academic programs for audiologists in the Philippines, Manila and Beijing. He is Fellow of the Audiological Society of Australia and a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology. Philip Newall has research interests in clinical audiology, especially in the area of amplification for the severely and profoundly hearing-impaired and in the epidemiology of deafness and tinnitus. He has written more than 100 articles in scientific journals and has been a chief investigator on research grants worth over A$3 million. He has made over 130 presentations at conferences in Australia and overseas. He is an Emeritus Professor at Macquarie University, and a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle, and a Professorial Fellow at the Renwick Centre in the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in Sydney, Australia.