A major achievement for the Department in 2007-08 was the implementation of a new rehabilitation service to help new Hearing Service Program clients to cope with their hearing loss and to use their devices effectively. This new service allows for two additional rehabilitation sessions for newly fitted clients after their device fitting appointments have been finalised. Clients may access these sessions either individually or in group sessions with other newly fitted people. Communication partners will also be encouraged to be involved to help them understand the hearing impaired person's difficulties. Both clients and communication partners will be provided with communication strategies which will allow better management of the clients' listening environments.
The Department collaborated with experts and industry representatives to develop underpinning guidelines. The new service became available on 1 January 2008, with a development and implementation phase in the first year. The Department expects that all newly fitted clients will be able to access these services by the end of 2008 and will track the expected improvements to client outcomes through a benchmarking project.
The Department also focused on maintaining a high standard of service for special needs clients under the Community Service Obligations component of the Hearing Services Program which is delivered by the Government's provider, Australian Hearing. The Community Service Obligations program provides services to special needs clients including children, eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and eligible adults with complex hearing needs.
A major achievement was the provision of Community Service Obligations services to 47,692 special needs clients in 2007-08, compared with 37,819 in 2006-07. In addition, 70 per cent of clients received improved devices through funding allocated for devices with more advanced technology.
Australian Hearing delivered the Community Service Obligations program under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department. The Department and Australian Hearing are currently negotiating a new memorandum to improve reporting of services delivered against the agreed quality standards.
The Australian Hearing Specialist Program for Indigenous Australians is an additional Community Service Obligations category created in recognition that, at times, services provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need to be delivered differently from mainstream services. Services were provided at 217 Indigenous outreach sites compared with the target of 133 sites. This was a 27 per cent increase on the 171 sites serviced in the previous year.
Australian Hearing significantly exceeded the target number of service delivery sites on both the current and previous year. In 2007-08, 3,874 clients were seen and 5,014 services were provided at these sites. This was an improvement in the services provided under this scheme on the previous year, which provided 2,671 clients with 3,497 services.
The Community Service Obligations program also includes the Extended Eligibility Initiative, which provides hearing services to Indigenous Australians who are over 50 years of age or participants in the Community Development Employment Projects Program. Providing Indigenous Australians with access to services under this initiative was a challenge in 2007-08. There was a 12 per cent increase in the number of people (2,293) benefiting from the initiative this year compared with the previous year (2,048). The target of 2,535 was not met. This deficit was the result of changes to the Community Development Employment Projects Program which was being progressively phased out in the Northern Territory from September 2007 and ceased operation in some other urban and regional sites across Australia.
In 2007-08, Australian Hearing delivered services to approximately 17,299 complex clients under the Community Service Obligations program and exceeded the target of 17,000 adults.
There was a 9.6 per cent increase in the number of young Australians who received services under the Community Service Obligations program (28,100) this year compared with the previous year (25,642). The target of 26,120 was exceeded.
The Department established the Hearing Loss Prevention Program in December 2007 to help reduce the incidence of hearing loss in the general community and its consequent impacts on productivity. It specifically targets young people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those in the workplace.
The Department consulted with researchers and other relevant stakeholders during the year, to identify priorities for research into hearing loss prevention. Funding under this program will fill important gaps in knowledge about the prevention of hearing loss. This research will focus on the management of middle ear disease and hearing loss in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and barriers and enablers to the use of hearing protection in the workplace. Research will also address hearing loss in young people, focusing on the prevalence of hearing loss in relation to noise exposure, the mapping of high risk noise exposure activities, and the effectiveness of prevention activities. The first results from this research are expected in June 2010.
A new pathway will change the way in which clients gain access to hearing rehabilitation services. In preparation for the new pathway, the Department worked to develop a draft implementation plan, consulting extensively with stakeholders, including consumers, hearing health providers, professional and industry groups and medical practitioners. The Department distributed the draft implementation plan to hearing service providers and practitioners for comment in May 2008. The Department will continue to consult with stakeholders during 2008-09 to progress the implementation of the new pathway. It will also continue supporting activities such as practitioner training and focus on informing general practitioners of the changes.
Another major achievement was a mid term review of the device specifications under the Department's Deed of Standing Offer with hearing device manufacturers. Changes to the deed resulting from the review were effective from 31 October 2007 and provide an improved range of features for the hearing devices available under the Hearing Services Program. An example of this improvement was the addition of noise suppression or feedback cancellation as a free to client feature for in-the-ear hearing aids.
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