Expanding a successful international cross-border hearing health project
Project Description:
In 2015, the Hearing Health program at ARSOBO began. Under the supervision of SLHS faculty, audiology graduate students learn experientially and address important societal challenges in a resource-limited setting just 70 miles from the University. Each month, students provide hearing evaluations to adults and children, select and program hearing instruments when appropriate. Three years ago, there were no practicing audiologists in Nogales, MX, a population of 380,000. Without the benefit of hearing aids, adults have lost employment. Children with untreated hearing loss experience developmental and academic delays.
Audiology students working at ARSOBO are stunned when they find school-aged children with untreated hearing loss. Parents recognized their child's hearing loss but lacking access to audiological services are helpless to do anything. Seeking help in the Capitol, Hermosillo, is prohibitively expensive. But just across the border, every newborn in the U.S. has a hearing screening before leaving the nursery. Until 3 years ago, no hospital in Nogales screened newborns for hearing and currently, the only hospital where screening is being done is at the Social Security Hospital but there it is very inconsistent.
SLHS audiology graduate students will train mothers from Manitas que Hablan (Little Hands that Talk) and Nursing Students from Escuela de Enfermeria Pablo de Anda in Nogales to screen hearing. They will collaboratively introduce Newborn Hearing Screening to Nogales hospitals and make it routine for every newborn.
Infants who fail the screening will receive sophisticated hearing evaluations at ARSOBO including Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) testing.
Graduate audiology students will assist in establishing hearing conservation programs at maquilas whose factory workers are exposed to 'toxic' noise levels
University students will develop hearing conservation programs to educate factory owners and workers on how to prevent hearing loss.
University students will train the aforementioned mothers to administer pure tone audiograms to factory workers. The maquilas will be charged for this service.
In order to objectively evaluate the success of ARSOBO's Hearing Health program, UCEDD and COPH faculty will work with students to evaluate the program and conduct research.
Keyword(s):
Clinical Care, Early Childhood – Newborn Screening, Social Determinants of Health, Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults with Special Health Care Needs, hearing, international, Mexico
Core Function(s):
Training Trainees, Performing Research or Evaluation, Continuing Education/Community Training, Other Direct/Model Services
Area of Emphasis
Education & Early Intervention, Health-Related Activities, Other - Leadership
Target Audience:
Students/Trainees (long or intermediate trainees), Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Geographic Areas, Territory, Geographic Area - Other, Other
Primary Target Audience Geographic Descriptor:
International
COVID-19 Related Data:
N/A
