The front page is dominated by a logo of the Society for Sound Hearing logo alongwith its tagline: Action for Ear and Hearing Care for all. It also states the overarching aim of the society which is to 'Develop Comprehensive, inclusive and sustainable ear & hearing care programs in Asian countries'.
The page carries the logo of CBM and indicates the Society is supported by CBM.
The newsletter also gives the address and contact details:
Society for Sound Hearing
Room No 306 A, Office of the Dean
Maulana Azad Medical College, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi, India 110002
Phones: +91-9212666995 Fax: +91-11-23235574
E-mail: shellychadha@gmail.com, bulancoosh@gmail.com
Website: www.soundhearing2030.org/
The inner page carries a picture of a girl with the logo of the Society for Sound Hearing logo alongwith its tagline: Action for Ear and Hearing Care for all. The newsletter is an account of all activities of the society from 2005-2011.
The page outlines the Vision, Mission, goal and objectives of the society. It also outlines the countries included in the organisation.
SOUND HEARING 2030 is an initiative for the prevention and elimination of hearing impairment. Its key function is improving the quality of life of persons with hearing impairment through development of comprehensive, inclusive, and sustainable ear and hearing care programs at national and sub national levels. This would be by facilitation, guidance, technical support, sharing of information, monitoring and evaluation, all in collaboration with National Committees and all stake holders of target countries in the South East Asia and other regions.
In 2002, the Recommendations of the WHO Inter-Country Consultative Meeting in Colombo stated that an institutional structure needs to be put in place for all the stakeholders to move on and provide a mechanism for regional cooperation among SEA countries in relation to all aspects of deafness prevention and ear and hearing care. This led to the launch of the Sound Hearing 2030 program.
The Society for Sound Hearing (SSH) has been ratified at the first General Body meeting in Bangkok on the 4th of October 2005, with the initial support of WHO SEARO and CBM. It is a permanent New Delhi based international organization with representations from professional societies, governmental focal persons, international NGOs, agencies, and active individuals.
COUNTRIES INCLUDED: The countries included at the start of the regional organization are eleven countries, in accordance with the WHO regional division. At present the Society for Sound Hearing is focussed on the South East Asia Region of the World Health Organization. The target countries shall be expanded to include all countries of Asia and finally be extended all over the globe.
The countries include: Bangladesh, Bhutan, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste.
The page outlines the Functions, Priorities, Supporting Agencies of the society.
Infrastructure development specially focused on the primary and secondary level.
It carries the logos of WHO and CBM.
WHO Headquarters and WHO SEARO has been actively involved since the development of the organization in its early phase, with great support from the Prevention for Hearing Impairment(PHI-PBD) official Dr Andrew Smith (founding member) and Regional Advisors for Disability, Prevention of Injury and rehabilitation (RA-DPR) officials: Dr Madan Upadhyay (founding member), Dr Santikarn Chamaiparn and Dr. Sara Varughese.
Technical support as well as financial support for meetings, symposiums and epidemiological data update has been provided by the W.H.O. SEARO alongwith great inputs and advice of Dr Sawat Ramaboot (founding member) and Dr U Than Sein.
CBM, under the leadership of Dr Allen Foster has been the main financial sponsor, for organizational activities as well as programs and meetings. Ms Silvana Mehra (founding member) as well as other Regional Directors and the staff of CBM has given ongoing technical support for set up, capacity building and program planning of the organization, as well as distribution of recommendations through all CBM channels. This in turn has initiated implementation activities in the form of community ear and hearing / prevention of hearing impairment projects in several locations in the region.
IMPACT through involvement of Dr Padman Ratnesar (founding member), HEARING INTERNATIONAL through involvement of Dr Suchitra Prasansuk (founding member), IFOS through Dr Arun Agarwal (founding member)and Dr M Alauddin (founding member) have given invaluable inputs in the development of terms of reference and the rules of procedures of the organization.
International Society of Audiologists (ISA) - ASEAN ORL HNS - SAARC ENT - WHO CC BANGKOK - WHO CC JAKARTA - WWHEARING - NATIONAL COMMITTEES - ACTIVE INDIVIDUALS - HEARING AIDS MANUFACTURERS AND COMPANIES
This page refers to Current Scenario on Disability.
On 9 June 2011, WHO and the World Bank officially launched the first-ever World report on disability. This landmark report reveals that more than 1 Billion people in the world experience some form of disability.
According to the World Health Organisation, 15% of the population of the world suffers with a disability. 80% live in middle & low income countires. 1/3rd of people of disabilities are children. 2/3rd of people of disabilities in these children could have been prevented.
STRATEGY: The World report on disability recommends that governments and their development partners provide people with disabilities access to all mainstream services, invest in specific programmes and services for those people with disabilities who are in need, and adopt a national disability strategy and plan of action.
In addition, governments should work to increase public awareness and understanding of disability, and support further research and training in the area. Importantly, people with disabilities should be consulted and involved in the design and implementation of these efforts.
World report: Prevalence of moderate and severe disability (in millions), by leading health condition associated with disability, and by age and income status of countries.
All age groups are prone to ear and hearing disorders but, it is essentially the younger age group which faces the maximum morbidity in this regard. The common ear diseases that are prevalent in our country include Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media, Secretory otitis Media and Wax impaction. A large number of these diseases are preventable. Others can be treated medically or surgically. Effective and early treatment of these ear diseases can lead to improvement in the outcome of the affected persons.
However, it is estimated that over 166 million people in the developing world face a severe lack of intervention services for hearing loss. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this crisis results from a substantial increase in "disabling hearing impairment" over the last 15 years. This is compounded by a severe shortage of skilled health care workers, especially so in the developing countries.
Recent reports WHO[2002] and Nelson[2005] state that worldwide, 16% of the disabling hearing loss in adults is attributed to occupational noise ranging from 7% to 21% in various sub regions. However, Noise is no longer an occupational problem alone, as it is has now permeated all aspects of our social life. Smith et al. (2000) found that the number of young people with social noise exposure has tripled (19%) since early 1980s while occupational noise has decreased. Serra et al. (2005) studied that sound levels of Personal Music Devices (PMDs) range between 75-105 dB and of discos between 104.3-112.4 dB so their chronic use leads to Noise Induced Hearing Loss [NIHL]. NIHL can be prevented to a large extent by reducing exposure time and levels. For this attention has to be drawn to the need for ensuring that sufficient preventive measures are in place.
This page refers Founder members, Executive Committee, Advisory Board and Secretariat.
FOUNDER MEMBERS: The founder members who worked to establish the organisation were the representatives of nine lead organisations. They are, as given below
An image of the Founder Members - Top Right to Left: Dr. A.K. Agarwal, Dr. Madan Upadhyay, Dr. Padman Ratnesar;Bottom Right to Left: Ms Silvana Mehra, Dr. Bulantrisna Djelantik, Dr. Andrew Smith
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The first Executive Committee completed its tenure from 2005 to 2009.
The second executive committee was elected in December 2009 during the 3rd General Body meeting of the organisation, held in Kathmandu, Nepal. The executive members include:
An image of the EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2009-2013. Starting from Top Right to Left: Prof. Suneela Garg, prof. Shelly Chadha, Dr. MNG Mani, Dr. U. Than Sein, Prof. Rakesh Shrivastava, Mr. Vikas Katoch (CBM SARON), Dr. Ronny Suwento, Dr. A.H. Joarder; Bottom left to right: Ms. Silvana Mehra, Dr. M. Upadhyay, Prof. A.K. Agarwal, Dr. Bulantrisna Djelantik, Prof. Suchitra Prasansuk
ADVISORY BOARD: An advisory board constituted in 2009 consists of the following members:
Images of the members of Advisory Board. Starting from Top Left: Dr. J.J. Grote, Top right: Dr. Andrew Smith;Bottom left: Dr. Prangopal Dutta, Bottom right: Dr. B. Mc Pherson
SECRETARIAT: The Office of the secretariat is located at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi. Ms. Janki Mehta is the Office Administrator. Part time employees of the office consist of Ms. Indubala and Mr. Mayank Kamboj.
An image of the secretariat members.
This page outlines the Activities of the society:
This page continues with the Activities of the society. This page also displays awareness material that has been created by the society for Sound Hearing including posters and flyers.
This page outlines the Programme Concepts of the society and describes various Program such as HEALTHY EAR DISTRICT PROGRAMME, SCHOOL HEARING SCREENING PROGRAMME.
In most countries of the region, a district level hospital is defined as one that serves at least one million population. In some highly populated areas, the population could reach 2 million people or more. Ear and hearing care services have been found to be the weakest at this level, while on the other hand, this level plays an important role in the referral chain of the patients in the community.
A District Hospital is the first referral center for patients from the Primary Health Centers at the remote or rural areas. In order to establish a proper 'Ear & Hearing care service' at this level, the minimal requirement that ideally has to be in place at the District Hospital has been discussed at a working group during the WHO Inter-Country Consultation Meeting in Colombo in December 2002. Table 1 shows the compilation of the group recommendation.
Description | Requirements |
---|---|
SERVICES (minimum requirement) | Pure tone audiometry and tympanometry Simple ear surgery, eg. simple mastoidectomy; Pure tone audiometry and tympanometry Simple ear surgery, eg. mastoidectomy; Grommet / Myringotomy; Myringoplasty / Impacted ear wax / FB removal Determine types and degree of hearing loss Hearing aid fitting in adults Speech therapy if possible Outreach services
|
HUMAN RESOURCES | ENT Doctor (1), Audiometrist (1) ENT Nurse / Technician (1), ENT Nurse ( O.T.) (1) Hearing Aid Technician (including Ear Mould Making) Speech Therapist / Audiologist - if possible Outreach Services coordinator |
DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES | The ENT doctor should have community-oriented training Have training for Audiometrists Training facilities for Para-medics Training of Primary Level Workers |
DEVELOPMENT OF OTHER RESOURCES | Clinical Audiometer (1), Tympanometer (1) Operating Microscope (1) All necessary surgical instruments |
This concept is already under implementation in India as a National Programme.
LESS NOISE CITIES:
As the world moves forward in the 21st century, there is increasing urbanisation with its consequent explosion of urban population leading to the development of megacities. 'Megacities' is a term coined by the United Nations, to describe cities with at least 10 million inhabitants. It is expected that by the year 2015, there will be 33 such megacities in the world. Twenty seven of these will be in developing countries. With greater development come greater problems and environmental ills. Due to increasing industrialization and mechanization, the problem of Noise has become a serious issue in such cities and the menace is likely to grow, if not checked. With this in mind, the Society for Sound Hearing has developed the concept of 'Less Noisy Cities'. This is a comprehensive programme, looking at various aspects of noise, its control and mitigation in the urban context.
The Aim of such a programme is:
To reduce noise exposure of the population living in megacities and to control its possible adverse effects.
The strategies for this include:
The activities that are advocated in this regard include:
These are some of the activities envisaged under the programme. For a more detailed concept note visit: www.soundhearing2030.org.
This page describes the SCHOOL HEARING SCREENING PROGRAMME.
An image showing the School Screening in Progress in India and another image in Indonesia.
The children of Primary school going age group are the ones who are most predisposed to developing various ear diseases such as Otitis Media and Cerumen impaction, that can lead to mild to moderate and sometimes severe hearing loss. Most of these ear diseases are preventable to a great extent. As and when they occur, they can be treated, either medically or surgically. What is required is a method by which these children can be detected at an early stage and treated suitably.
The Recommendations for School Screening chalk out the principle requirements for conduct of a successful programme. These include:
For more details, please log onto www.soundhearing2030.org
WHO SEA report on status of ear & hearing care states that 'the fact that deafness is increasing rapidly indicates that perhaps actions so far have been inadequate to reduce the pace at which it is increasing.' On the other hand, initiatives such as Vision 2020 have led to the development of eye care programmes in most parts of the world. Even in developing countries such as India, eye care programmes have been well established for over the last couple of decades.
It is proposed that wherever the eye care infrastructure is well developed, primary ear & hearing care services can be initiated within the same infrastructure. This will help to minimise potential expenses and prevent duplication of effort.
An image showing Vision centre serving as Eye-Ear & Hearing Care centre in a slum area of New Delhi, India
This concept has already been field tested in India and is currently also being field tested in Nepal.