Publications

Newsletter 4a

The page outlines the Functions, Priorities, Supporting Agencies of the society.

FUNCTIONS of SSH:

1. Promote the principle and practice of primary ear and hearing health care, as a fundamental aspect of public health intervention.
2. To facilitate the resource mobilization in the countries for enhancing access to simple and appropriate ear and hearing health carel.
3. To identify good practices, and to exchange such experience and information on all aspects related to hearing loss and impairment.
4. To collaborate with national programmes on deafness hearing impairment.
5. To work closely in partnership with national expertise, institutions, committees, national and international Civil Society, WHO and other development partners in promoting better hearing for all.

PRIORITIES (may vary with each country):

1. Care for the underprivileged communities.
2. Focus on early detection, intervention and rehabilitation of the most commonly occurring and preventable causes of deafness and hearing impairment, such as:
   1. middle ear infection
   2. congenital
   3. ototoxicity
   4. impacted cerumen
   5. aging (presbycusis)
3. Prevention programs at all levels of services.
4. Human resource development.

Infrastructure development specially focused on the primary and secondary level.

SUPPORTING AGENCIES:

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.

OTHER LINKAGES:

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