Hearing Awareness Week 2009

News bulletin: 18 August 2009

One in six Australians suffer from some form of hearing loss.

Hearing Awareness Week, 23-29 August 2009, aims to raise awareness of hearing loss, deafness and chronic ear disorders.

Its theme for this year is At Home, At Work, At Play - One In Six to remind people how common hearing loss is in our everyday lives.

Over the week, groups from throughout Australia will engage in discussions and activities to stimulate and educate the community on hearing loss.

The use of assistive devices such as hearing aids, cochlear implants and media captioning have helped those affected lead full lives at work, home and play.

With these advances in technology the Deafness Forum also wants to get the message across that public awareness and acceptance can also help people cope with their conditions.

Through education, people can learn how to: adapt their environments to complement colleagues with hearing loss, recognise hearing loss symptoms, and identify situations that may lead to hearing loss.

Hearing Awareness Week invites all schools, groups and families to get involved and offers education resources and advice on how you can help to raise awareness in the community.

For more information, see: Hearing Awareness Week 2009

The department also has information on hearing for children. For more information, see: Child health record