Media release from the New Zealand Audiological Society

The Government's treatment of people of all ages with hearing loss will be put under the spotlight at the New Zealand Audiological Society Conference this week

"There is a lot of concern amongst the hearing care profession about the future for people with hearing loss in New Zealand," says Lesley Hindmarsh, President of the New Zealand Audiological Society. "The list of issues just keeps growing."

The country's audiologists will gather for the first time since the Government introduced sweeping changes to ACC hearing aid cover.

The proposed ACC cuts that will put hearing aids out of reach for thousands of people with noise induced hearing loss, new law changes that come into force on 1 July cutting cover for people with less than 6 percent hearing loss, progress with the newborn hearing screening programme and whether New Zealand is doing enough for people with hearing loss are some of the issues that will be discussed during the conference.

Overseas and local experts will be presenting at the annual New Zealand Audiology Society Conference which is being held at the Blenheim Convention Centre, Blenheim from Wednesday 30 June to Saturday 3 July.

Dr. Alison Grimes, visiting head of Audiology Clinic at UCLA Medical Center and Assistant Clinical Professor in Head and Neck Surgery, will be sharing her knowledge of diagnosis and treatment for the growing number with age-related hearing loss. She has also been involved with early diagnosis, and early intervention for hearing impaired and deaf children.


Developing programmes in Newborn Hearing Screening around New Zealand will benefit from the knowledge of both Dr. Grimes and another well known overseas speaker, Dr. Caroline Bowen, a speech-language pathologist with an Honorary Associate in Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney.

Audiologists will be updated on the New Zealand wide roll-out of New Born Hearing Screening and Early Intervention Programmes by Vickie Rydz, from the Ministry of Health, who has played an integral part in setting up the New Zealand programme.

Research on noise-induced hearing loss and infant hearing testing are topics presented by international and local experts at the annual New Zealand Audiology conference. Two local specialists, Dr Peter Thorne and Dr David Welch from the University of Auckland, will share their research into noise-induced hearing loss in New Zealand.