INTERVENTION IN HEARING LOSS FOR AUSTRALIAN PATIENTS ACROSS CARE SETTINGS AND WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS Audiologist talks about indications for GPs, pharmacists, primary care nurses and specialists.
Lauren McNee, is an Audiologist and National Clinic Coordinator Training Manager at Audika Australia, with over 15 years of extensive experience in the industry. For the past five years, she has been dedicated to providing comprehensive training and support for the audiological team and front desk staff at Audika. Her primary focus is to ensure that clients receive the highest standard of care, aligning with industry-leading practices.
Throughout her career, Lauren has been an advocate for early and routine hearing tests, stressing the importance of integrating them into general medical check-ups, especially for individuals diagnosed with conditions such as diabetes. She firmly believes that proactive screening for hearing loss can significantly impact an individual’s overall well-being and the effectiveness of medical treatments.
In her role, Lauren emphasises the urgency of addressing sudden hearing loss, highlighting the time-sensitive nature of available treatment options. She advises healthcare professionals, including GPs, pharmacists, primary care nurses and specialists, to remain vigilant for subtle signs of hearing loss in their patients. Such signs may include difficulty following prescription guidelines, miscommunication during conversations, or non-verbal cues like a tilt of the head or asking for repetitions.
Furthermore, Lauren underscores the crucial role of professionals in various settings, such as aged care nurses and pharmacists, in identifying and addressing hearing loss issues among their clients in the community.
Beyond her clinical work, Lauren actively promotes the understanding of recreational and commercial noise-induced hearing loss. She highlights the potential long-term consequences of recreational noise exposure, such as prolonged use of earbuds and exposure to loud household and leisure activities.
In commercial settings, Lauren advocates for the proactive use of protective equipment for hearing loss in industries such as mining or construction, where individuals may be exposed to hazardous noise levels without proper protection.
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HIGHLIGHTS The power of social determinants of health, panel discussion
Clinicians and consumers know only too well that life circumstances such as poor housing, income and food insecurity can have a negative impact on health outcomes. Conversely, participation in community activities, social connection and access to nature parks and leisure facilities can help maintain health and wellbeing.
More recent phenomena in public health have also focused us on the health and social care connection. Stress factors such as the sudden loss of employment and social interaction, moving to remote work or schooling, and the impacts of sudden, localised COVID-19 ‘lockdowns’ to prevent further outbreaks were triggers of increased psychological distress.
And loneliness is being described as our latest epidemic with chronic loneliness inked to a myriad of health problems and earlier death. A recent report found one in four Australians say they feel persistently lonely, and that loneliness costs $2.7 bn a year in health costs alone.
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Paediatric mental help for children of defence personnel, veterans and first responders
Dr Marg Rogers is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at University of New England (UNE) in Armidale, New South Wales. She is a prominent figure in early childhood education New South Wales, and is also a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Manna Institute, a mental health research organisation within the regional university network across Australia, that is building place based research capacity to improve the mental health of regional, rural and remote Australia.
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Recognising service in health regulation
In April 2023, Professor John Skerritt retired from his position of Deputy Secretary Health Products Regulation Group, a role he has been in since 2012. During his time at the TGA he had line responsibility for over 1200 staff involved in the regulation of therapeutic goods, regulation of gene technology and industrial chemicals and control of drug import, export and production.
At this year’s ARCS 2023 Conference, ARCS Australia CEO Dr Shanny Dyer paid tribute to Professor Skerritt and his service to the Australian health industry. She led a tribute with fellow industry heads, Elizabeth de Somer, CEO, Medicines Australia, Anne Harris, Managing Director, Pfizer Australia & New Zealand, Deon Schoombie, CEO, Consumer Healthcare Products Australia, Ian Burgess, CEO, Medical Technology Association of Australia and Arthur Brandwood, President ARCS Australia.
