Ten years ago, audiometrist Steve Reinhardt launched Ears to You, a mobile diagnostic hearing service based in Sydney, providing critical services to aged care residents, rural communities, and clients who are housebound. Together with his wife Robyn, they also founded Helping Ears, a charity that offers free refurbished hearing aids and audiological care to remote villages in Fiji.
As a drummer in a progressive death metal band, Mr Steve Reinhardt surprised many — including himself — when he switched from studying music to a career in audiometry. It turned out to be a life-changing decision, one he grew to love. Eventually, he even convinced his wife, Robyn, to retrain as an audiometrist.
Steve was studying music at Macquarie University when his mother, audiologist Mrs Lindsay Reinhardt, suggested audiometry as a career path. Taking her advice, he enrolled in TAFE to study audiometry, setting him on a path that would bridge his love of music and hearing care.
Wanting to extend his clinical work and philosophy to those unable to attend a traditional clinic, he pioneered mobile hearing care in Sydney. With his musical background, he has also been managing the hearing needs of Sydney Symphony Orchestra musicians since 2017. He has even led hearing protection workshops for drummers, maintaining a strong link to his musical roots.
Steve’s first professional role was in Warrnambool, regional Victoria. “It was a fantastic induction program, and I learnt a lot working for Australian Hearing,” he recalls. “It taught me so much about the Australian hearing health system.”
In 2008, he returned to Sydney to work at his mother’s practice, Northside Audiology, which now operates four clinics. Today, he is a co-director of the practice, together with several specialist doctors.
Steve spends four days a week at Northside Audiology, with one day dedicated to Ears to You. “I was Sydney’s first independent mobile diagnostic hearing service provider for aged care and schools, where I also conduct hearing screenings,” he says. “My goal was to provide access to regional and metropolitan areas across NSW.”
A significant part of his work is in aged care, which often involves travel to locations including Young, five hours from Sydney, and Mudgee, two and a half hours away.
Repurposing hearing aids for charity
During aged care visits, relatives and staff often asked what to do with the hearing aids of residents who no longer had a need for the devices. This sparked the idea for Helping Ears, which was cemented during a holiday for Robyn’s 40th birthday in Savusavu, Fiji.
“We were at a resort, and the entire village came to sing happy birthday to Robyn – it was surreal,” Steve recalls. “The resort manager and I started talking about ears, and he asked if we’d return to provide audiological services. There was a shortage of allied health services, and many locals were experiencing hearing problems.”
The couple returned to Fiji with a plan. Their middle child, Gabe, even gathered donations of school supplies from his classmates — 43 kilograms worth — which were packed with handwritten notes for Fijian schoolchildren. “Our first day, we had five people on the list in the first hour, which quickly turned into 70 through word of mouth shortly after. We ended up seeing about 300 people,” Steve recalls. “At the time, we only had five donated hearing aids.”
On their next trip, they saw 600 people in one week. “We worked from 8am until 6pm each day. There’s little electricity, so they boiled water for us on campfires to perform ear irrigation,” Steve explains. “It’s a whole new level of audiology—the locals were fanning us with palm fronds because it was so hot — but it’s the most fulfilling work.”
Twenty of 220 kids’ ears were ‘normal’
The Reinhardts have since provided education to community leaders in ear health, training local medical staff, and providing school screenings, including screening 220 children at one school. “Only 20 of them had normal ears,” Steve recalls. “The rest had some form of perforation, eustachian tube dysfunction, or foreign bodies in their ears. The incidence of perforations is high, likely due to their free-diving activities to retrieve pearls and fish.”
The couple conducts otoscopy for all patients, tympanometry for children, and either wax removal or an audiogram if otoscopy is clear and patients are reporting issues with hearing. Cerumen removal is challenging due to environmental factors. “Clean Ears donate products that work effectively to soften wax, making removal easier,” Steve says.
Each patient’s age and the severity of their hearing loss determine the allocation of hearing aids. “Deciding who receives one (of a limited supply) can be tough, but we strive to act ethically,” he adds.
On recent trips, Helping Ears has seen about 900 patients, fitting donated hearing aids for 10 people, with more than 50 on a waiting list. Additionally, they’ve removed impacted wax for 103 patients, diagnosed perforations, extracted foreign objects from children’s ears, and referred numerous patients to doctors for antibiotics.
One memorable patient was Leno, 48, who had lived with untreated hearing loss for 42 years. “His father had a car accident when he was six, driving off a cliff with Leno strapped in the back seat,” Steve says. “He survived but lost hearing in one ear and had moderate loss in the other.
“For 42 years, he couldn’t hear normal conversation. With hearing aids, he realised birds made sounds — he used to see them just as flashes of colour, not realising they could sing. Stories like Leno’s drive us to keep going, but our help is limited by the number of devices we have.”
A video on the Helping Ears website shows Leno expressing his gratitude: “Thank you very much for helping. I can hear from a distance, I can hear the housekeeping ladies talking and the birds. I am so happy.”
A call for donated hearing aids and computers
The Reinhardt’s foundation, Helping Ears, is seeking strategic partners to support their work. “We collect hearing aids from aged care facilities and urge clinics to donate any devices their patients no longer need, as long as they’re in good working order and under warranty. We prefer battery-operated devices because electricity is scarce,” Steve says.
Similarly, the couple has donated refurbished computers to Fijian schools. “During one visit, we found a computer lab with monitors but no computers,” he adds. “Our practice was upgrading 15 computers, so we formatted, serviced, and donated them. We’ve now set up three schools and hope to expand if any clinics have refurbished computers in good working order.”
Living up to its motto, Helping Ears, Changing Lives, the charity aims for sustainability. “We don’t want to be a one-hit wonder. We’re committed to creating a lasting impact, which is why we keep returning to Savusavu,” Steve says.
Helping Ears is registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), and donations over $2 are tax-deductible.
“Financial donations are hugely appreciated to assist in buying medical equipment for the local GP, acquisition of hearing aids and to support the program overall,” Steve says.
Clinics, practitioners, and industry members interested in donating hearing aids or computers, or helping on the ground in Fiji, can reach out via info@helpingears.org. For more information, visit https://www.helpingears.org/