Children’s Health Queensland’s Healthy Hearing Program is celebrating 20 years of service, having performed more than 1.1 million free newborn hearing screenings on Queensland babies.
The statewide Healthy Hearing Program was introduced in October 2004 and since then, practitioners working for the program have diagnosed more than 3,200 newborn babies with hearing loss and supported their pathway from diagnosis to early intervention.
More than 1,000 of these children have been fitted with hearing aids or cochlear implants.
Before newborn screening was introduced, children in Queensland waited until they were an average 2.5 years old before hearing loss was detected.
Children’s Health Queensland Healthy Hearing Director, speech pathologist Ms Lauren McHugh, said early detection of a hearing issue and appropriate support could help children to learn, play and communicate with their families.
“Before universal newborn hearing screening began in Queensland the average age of detection of permanent hearing loss in children was approximately 30 months,” she said.
“Twenty years later, we have 68 facilities and a workforce of more than 900 screeners that offer newborn hearing screening to about 59,000 eligible babies each year.”
About one in 1,000 babies are born in Australia each year with moderate or more severe hearing loss in one or both ears, making hearing loss one of the most common congenital conditions detectable at birth.
Four-month-old Harry Moore from Rockhampton is among the children who have benefitted from the program. He was diagnosed with permanent bilateral moderate to severe hearing loss at three weeks old and referred to the Healthy Hearing Childhood Hearing Clinic for assistance.
“Harry was fitted with hearing aids at 10 weeks old through Hearing Australia and had tests to determine the cause of his hearing loss. We were amazed at the ‘one stop shop’ the clinic provided, and the help tailored specifically for him,” Harry’s mum Claire said.
“We attend speech therapy as a family as part of the early intervention to ensure Harry has access to full speech and language to provide him with the very best chance of development.
“Initially it was difficult to process Harry’s diagnosis, and managing his treatment was a learning curve, but we are now taking it in stride with our everyday life.
“We’ve had so much support from family, friends and the clinicians involved in Harry’s journey and are grateful to have the system in place that not only picked up Harry’s hearing loss but helped us to manage it.”
Claire said Harry’s regular appointments and hearing tests continued and he was living a happy, healthy life.
“His development is on track, and he loves exploring the world around him,” she said.
“Harry’s days are filled up with playgroups, going to the library, seeing friends and family and mostly being at home on the family acreage with mum, dad, and big sister Zoe.”
The newborn hearing screening service is offered in all private and public birthing hospitals across the state.
If a baby receives a referred result in their newborn screening, free follow-up care is available at 14 paediatric audiology services across Queensland.
Apart from newborn screenings, the wider Healthy Hearing Program includes the Queensland Children’s Hospital Childhood Hearing Clinic, Healthy Hearing Family Support Service, Community Hearing Screening Clinics and Early Intervention Service.
