About the initiatives
An independent Hearing Health Sector Committee developed the Roadmap for Hearing Health in 2019. The roadmap outlines recommended actions for all governments and the broader hearing sector to improve hearing health in Australia.
We implemented several roadmap actions designed to:
- raise awareness of hearing health
- build our evidence base
- improve ear health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
- increase capability among our aged care workforce to recognise and deal with hearing loss among older Australians.
Roadmap for Hearing Health
Goals of the initiatives
These initiatives will help:
- Australians better understand avoidable hearing loss so that they can prevent it
- ensure our policies and programs are based on sound evidence
- provide quality screening and support services
- improve the ear health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- ensure older Australians with hearing loss have the support they need.
Meeting these goals
Awareness and prevention campaign
In 2023 we launched a national hearing awareness campaign to help:
- raise awareness of the importance of hearing health
- prevent avoidable hearing loss
- destigmatise hearing loss
- encourage people to get a hearing check if they suspect hearing loss.
The campaign messaging was informed by consumer focus group research and tailored to specific target audiences. All campaign resources can be found on the Department of Health and Aged Care’s Get help with your hearing website.
Research
We support hearing research to provide further evidence for the effective treatment, service delivery and prevention of hearing loss through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The research projects funded under this initiative are due to be completed in 2025.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hearing health
This initiative promoted early identification and treatment of hearing and speech difficulties in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. We funded:
- eligible Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to create quiet spaces for hearing tests
- Hearing Australia to create a ‘Listen and Learn’ program in consultation with the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, to help people who work with or look after Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 3 to 8 to recognise hearing problems and take action.
Aged care workforce
We funded Australian Healthcare Associates to analyse current resources and practices in residential aged care settings and develop a best-practice model to help improve the hearing health of residents.
A Hearing Health Champion pilot was subsequently developed by Ernst and Young. The pilot, which concluded in July 2022, delivered training to participating residential aged care facilities.
Training materials developed for the pilot are being used to inform a hearing health module as part of the Equip Aged Care Learning Packages.
The Equip Aged Care Learning Packages are a series of free online learning modules to support aged care workers with foundational knowledge on key concepts in aged care.
Teleaudiology guidelines
We funded Audiology Australia to develop teleaudiology guidelines to help audiologists, audiometrists and hearing services providers deliver safe and effective hearing services remotely.
The guidelines were launched on 27 July 2022 and are now being adopted by the sector.
Regional and rural workforce
We fund Audiology Australia to audit the hearing workforce in rural and regional areas and host a summit with key stakeholders to discuss the audit’s findings.
The audit aimed to capture the gaps, changing demographics and future hearing workforce needs in regional, rural and remote areas.
The summit was held in March 2022 and brought together key professionals and stakeholders to discuss potential ways to better support people with hearing loss who live in regional Australia.
Who we work with
To progress actions relevant to the Roadmap for Hearing Health we are working with:
- NHMRC – managing the research grants process
- Hearing Australia – delivering the Indigenous hearing health measures
- National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation – co-designing the Listen and Learn program
- Audiology Australia – delivering the teleaudiology guidelines and regional workforce audit and summit measures
- Australian Healthcare Associates – developed the aged care workforce best-practice model
- EY – managing the Hearing Health Aged Care Workforce Training Pilot
- state and territory governments – through the Hearing Health Working Group.
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