Improving access for Australians who are Deaf, have a hearing impairment or a chronic disorder of th

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Improving access for Australians who are Deaf,
have a hearing impairment or a chronic disorder
of the ear
Nicole Lawder Deafness Forum of Australia
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Deafness Forum
Deafness Forum exists to improve the quality of
life for Australians who are Deaf, have a hearing
impairment or have a chronic disorder of the ear
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Lobbying

• Deafness Forum has been increasing its external
  lobbying examples include
• our 2007 election campaign
• Raising Children DVD
• family centred standards project

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Election Campaign

• For members to send to their local federal
  candidates
• Asking for responses
• 4 key issues, 20 questions
• To go on Deafness Forum website

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Raising Children DVD

• Launched by PM on 20 August
• Largely funded through grant from FaCSIA
• Aimed at new parents throughout Australia
• No captions or audio description
• Rapid and effective media campaign

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Project - Guidelines for working with deaf
children and their families

• Addresses how services are delivered, not what is
  delivered

• A set of family centred standards
• Development over 18 month period

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Rationale

• Why is the project needed?

• Ensure a nationally consistent, family centred
  approach to service delivery
• Allow professionals and families to work
  together to ensure the best outcomes are achieved
  for each child.

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Family centred practice

• Family as the unit of attention
• Informed family choice
• Viewing the family from a strengths perspective
• (Craft-Rosenberg, Kelly and Schnoll (2006) Family
  centred care practice and preparation. Families
  in Society, 87, 1. 17-25

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How was the project implemented

• Finding the standards
• Australian Hearing
• National Deaf Childrens Society (UK)
• Colorado Project (USA)
• Parents steering committee selection
• Online forum for standards discussion

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The standards

• Presenting the standards
• - Diagnosis
• - Early intervention/support
• - Communication with parents
• - Staff training

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Diagnosis

• Parents must be given information about the
  screening process in advance.
• Parents must be given accessible information they
  can take away with them at the time of
  confirmation.
• Parents must be fully informed about the nature
  and extent of their childs deafness
• At the time of confirmation of deafness there
  must be a professional present that is known to
  the parents.
• Staff must be well trained in assessment
  approaches and be able to explain both the
  testing procedures and results to parents before
  the assessments are being done.
• Information on hearing screening should be
  touched on in hospital antenatal classes.
• Midwives or nurses must be trained to adequately
  deal with mothers whose babies do not pass the
  initial hearing screening.

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Early intervention and support

• Support workers
• A representative from the early years support
  services must be available immediately after any
  confirmed hearing loss is confirmed
• There must be one support worker responsible for
  co-coordinating the early years support services
  for the family
• Parents must be fully involved in deciding on the
  support and intervention for their deaf child, as
  well as monitoring and evaluating the
  effectiveness of this provision

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Early intervention and support cont.

• Service delivery
• Services must be flexible and available at times
  that suit families, such as at evenings and
  weekends
• Services must work in a multidisciplinary way
• When state health/Australian hearing receives a
  referral that a child has been diagnosed as deaf
  they must ensure that the family is contacted
  within a week by a relevant professional.
  Families must be visited by someone from the
  support services within two weeks.

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Early intervention and support cont.

• Quality of information
• Parents must be given information on hearing aid
  implementation, support and management before a
  hearing aid is fitted.
• All assessments must have a clear set of aims and
  outcomes which will be used to benefit the deaf
  child and their family

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Communication with parents

• Information given to families must be unbiased,
  comprehensive, clear, accessible and accurate.
• Parents must receive all information in their
  preferred language, and have equal access to
  their preferred forms of information.
• Staff must be able to organise and provide
  support for the linguistic preferences of parents
• Professionals working with the deaf child and
  their family must provide unbiased and accurate
  information on all communication methods
• Information about voluntary and support sector
  services must be given to the family
• Services must offer families the opportunity to
  meet with deaf adults and children

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Staff training

• All services must ensure their staff is trained
  to communicate appropriately, sensitively and
  effectively with families
• Support workers must receive training that will
  enable them counsel, attend appointments and
  explain the different methodologies in EI
  programs.
• Regardless of who becomes the families support
  worker they must have knowledge of services,
  ability to be unbiased, knowledge of different
  communication methods, knowledge of the diagnosis
  and early intervention process, counselling
  skills and ability to connect families with other
  deaf families.

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Challenges faced

• Self selection
• Obtaining full representation
• Participation
• Technology

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Further implementation
Where to from here?

• Further discussion with parents to develop
  document
• Professional review
• Government engagement and implementation

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Many other ongoing and one-off projects

• Captioning Awards
• Hearing Awareness Week send out free posters
  and other materials including website
• Summit every second year
• Educational scholarships
• Libby Harricks Memorial Oration

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With thanks to

• Board of Directors
• Many committed volunteers
• Professionals who represent us on committees and
  panels
• Catherine Adcock and University of Canberra for
  assistance with parents project

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References
Craft-Rosenberg, M, Kelly, P Schnoll, L (2006)
Family centred care practice and preparation.
Families in Society, 87, 1. 17-25