Indigenous students more likely to develop ear disease
ACCORDING to the Australia Bureau of Statistics, one in eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will develop a hearing problem in their lifetime. Now, programs such as the Hear our Heart Ear Bus Project are working towards reducing this statistic, one school at a time.
The Hear our Heart Ear Bus Project began in 2012, bringing hearing testing and healthy ears lessons back into schools across Dubbo, Gilgandra, Wellington, Narromine, Trangie, Nyngan, Warren and Yeoval. The project travels around the region in their fully equipped bus, providing comprehensive air and bone conduction hearing testing in a sound proof booth.
Hear our Heart volunteer Rachael Mills says the reason indigenous students are more likely to develop hearing problems is due to their lifestyles.
“It’s nothing to do structurally but more to do with their living set up. Indigenous families tend to live with their extended family so when one person catches a cold it spreads to everybody else and every time a child catches a cold it goes to their ears.”
She says 75 percent of their program is based around awareness and prevention of ear problems in hope of creating healthy habits that will continue at school and home. To date the program has completed over 8,000 hearing tests which has led to 700 students requiring follow up ear specialist appointments, 250 students have undergone ear surgery and 25 students now have hearing aids.
The program has recently received a $50,000 grant from the Dubbo City Council which will assist in hiring more staff to allow the program to continue expanding across the region.