1November2017

Inspiration in the skies

After being diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss at age three,
this flying doctor had to overcome more than most.

Graeme Clark Scholarship

Financial assistance towards a degree at a university for
Cochlear customers in Australia and NZ.

Neanderthals took care of deaf buddy

Many people think of them as primitive cavemen. But
scientists believe that a Neanderthal man with hearing loss
lived to an old age thanks to help from his community.

World Deaf Rugby

Australia celebrates deaf rugby 7s at its best next April in
Sydney.

Sickening sounds
Noise pollution can increase blood pressure and lead to cardiac
arrest as well as stress, hypertension, tinnitus, sleep
deprivation, immune dysfunction and anxiety.

Audiology Australia conference

From 20 May 20 2018.

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, community, sea, and waters where we live and work. We pay our respects to
elderspast,presentandfutureandvaluethecontributionsIndigenousAustraliansmakeinoursociety.Weacknowledgethechallengefor
IndigenousleadersandfamiliestoovercometheunacceptablyhighlevelsofearhealthissuesamongfirstAustralians.
Flying doc an inspiration in the skies
By Anton Rose, The Chronicle

Fiona Stonley has never been one to let her condition hold her back.

After being diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss at age three, the LifeFlight doctor has overcome
more than most to be in the position she is in today.

It took years of speech therapy, training, and quite frankly a lot of guts, she said.

But her message to kids who feel like their disability will prevent them from achieving their
dreams is clear.

"There are very few things you can't do," she said. "As long as you've stopped and thought about
it like, 'okay there is this potential problem where I might not be able to hear that will be an issue'
how can I work around it. I'd just say go for it. You don't know if you don't try."

The job does not come without its difficulties, but Dr Stonley won't admit that.

After a year with LifeFlight she said she would look back on her time with fond memories when
she took to the air for the final time and bid farewell to return to her native England next year.

"In some ways it's really difficult for me to say if my hearing has made any difference because I
don't know any different," she said. "I'm going to be really sad actually. It's a great team here
and it's a really good place to work and I'm going to really miss it."

https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/flying-doc-an-inspiration-in-the-skies/3236769/
Sickening sounds, strange sensations all part of city living
Ruth Ostrow, The Australian

A few streets away from me developers have been demolishing an old block of four flats and
building a huge multi-level apartment block.

At some ungodly hour in the morning the drilling, banging and truck engines start, concrete is
poured, music blares from the tradesmen. The sound pollution is overwhelming. The other night
something happened to pipes on the property and there were emergency trucks and noise from
midnight on.

The same thing is happening in nearly every street for miles around. In this manic property
boom, it seems there is not an inch of earth that isnt being capitalised on by apartments or
duplexes or renovations.

On Sundays the drilling is replaced by lawnmowers, leaf blowers from hell and neighbours playing
with sawing machinery. That shrill sound is my worst nightmare.

Leaving home is just as bad. In Sydney there isnt a road that hasnt got detour signs and trucks
banging, road drills to thrill the ear drums. There are buildings going up everywhere its
construction gone mad.

The other night I started feeling really ill and no one could work out what it was: a dizzy, weird
feeling. A doctor I know suggested maybe I was suffering the ongoing effects of noise pollution
and torture of the ear drum, which can cause the whole body to go out of whack.

Being curious, I did some research and found a story in the journal of the American Psychological
Association titled Silence, Please. It indicated that noise might actually be deadly according to a
report by the World Health Organisation and the European Commissions Joint Research Centre.
Apparently a steady exposure to noise pollution can increase blood pressure and lead to cardiac
arrest as well as a host of other issues documented in other studies, like stress, hypertension,
tinnitus, sleep deprivation, immune dysfunction and anxiety. The WHO report confirmed that
chronic noise impairs a childs overall wellbeing.

There is overwhelming evidence that exposure to environmental noise has adverse effects on the
health of the population, the report concludes. Numerous studies now show that children
exposed to households or classrooms near aeroplane flight paths, railways or highways are slower
in their development of cognitive and language skills and have lower reading scores.

Sydney-based noise expert, acoustic engineer Steven Cooper who recently completed a
controversial pilot study on the detrimental effects of wind turbine farms using special
microphones, amplifiers and detection equipment says there is often a correlation between
sound and illness.

I once interviewed him about thumping music through concrete walls, which he explained was
vibrational. Symptoms may include feelings of nausea, dizziness (a sort of sea sickness) or severe
agitation.

Meanwhile one study by British scientists showed that infrasound sometimes referred to as
undetectable low-frequency sound can unconsciously create worrying feelings like a sense of
fear, anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills supporting popular suggestions of a link between
infrasound and strange sensations.

The negative effects of noise are expected to get worse. For me even going into the supermarket
puts my nerves on edge with jingles interrupting my thoughts. Imminent Christmas carols on
endless loops is a yearly acoustic burden for retail staff, worthy of workers compensation.

Noise is a psychological phenomenon, New York environmental psychologist Arline Bronzaft

says. She explains that the ears pick up sound waves and send them to the temporal lobe for
interpretation. Because of the involvement of the higher functions of the brain, psychologists
need to be increasingly involved in this growing problem.

The humming of refrigerators, computers, TVs; the whirr of sprinkler systems, washing machines;
flights overhead, thumping music, mobile devices binging, gardening and construction noise; and
the constant barking and crying of cats and dogs its exhausting us all.

I know they torture prisoners with heavy metal music. I think they just need to put someone in
my house for a week and theyd confess to anything.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/columnists/ruth-ostrow/sickening-sounds-strange-sensations-all-part-
of-city-living/news-story/623c887b169f2b0d507babc1cf54b5de
Cochlear CEO's early exit blamed on too much travel

Cochlear chairman Rick Holliday-Smith (left) and CEO Chris Smith

Cochlear chief executive Chris Smith's departure after just two years in the job follows a failed
understanding that the U.S. based executive would move to Australia.

Cochlear chairman, Rick Holliday-Smith said he "was led to believe and it was important to me"
that Mr Smith and his family "were committed to come to Australia" from Denver, Colorado, when
Mr Smith was appointed two years ago.

But about nine months into his term it became clear "he was not coming".

Mr Holliday-Smith said it was Chris Smith's decision and that the constant travel entailed by trying
to run an Australian multinational from Denver had taken its toll.

Chris Smith will leave the job in January 2018.

He will be replaced by Dig Howitt (at right).

The new Cochlear boss is a Boston Consulting Group alumnus, who

was in the same cohort as Woolworths chief Brad Banducci, former
Big W boss Sally Macdonald and worked with Foxtel boss Peter
Tonagh and former Australian Post chief Ahmed Fahour.

Dig Howitt said the company has a clear strategy and is doing
well, so our job is to execute well.

By Ben Potter, The Financial Review and John Durie, The Australian.
Graeme Clark Scholarship Australia and NZ
The Graeme Clark Scholarship is a unique award established to
help recipients of Cochlear hearing solutions further
themselves by undertaking university studies.

The Scholarship is open to Cochlear customers who are

residents of Australia and New Zealand.

It consists of financial assistance towards a degree at an

accredited university and is paid in annual installments on the
successful completion of each year of study for a period of up
to three years. It is available to cochlear implant and bone
conduction implant recipients who have been accepted into a
university course or who are current university students. This
includes mature age students.

The Scholarship is awarded on the basis of academic achievement and a demonstrated

commitment to the Cochlear ideals of leadership and humanity.

It honours Professor Graeme Clark, the inventor and pioneer of the modern day cochlear implant.

Submit an application by the close of business 17 November, 2017.

http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/connect/au/home/connect/community-and-networks/graeme-clark-scholarship

http://www.audiologyaustralia2018.asn.au/
Deaf Olympian takes on coaching role in AFLW. New
book on the way

Twenty-five years since he became the first deaf Australian to compete at an Olympic Games,
Dean Barton-Smith is now inspiring the next generation of athletes to reach the pinnacle of their
sport.

He wore a T-shirt at the 1992 Barcelona Games with the words: Who says deaf people cant do
anything. On the back it said: Think again.

Despite his profound deafness, Dean Barton-Smith has taken the reins as Ferntree Gullys under-
18 girls coach this year, assembling a team of players ranging from novices to AFLW aspirants.
AFL Women's is Australia's national Australian Rules Football league for female players.

I can relate to them in some ways that girls, people think theyre limited and people always
thought I was limited in Olympics because you had to be a perfect person, he said.

He relies on his ability to lip-read to help communicate, with his other senses compensating for his
loss of hearing. I tell people I listen through my eyes.

Dean is planning to write his personal biography. I sincerely hope that this story will inspire all of
us to think again, to give inspiration, hope and dreams for aspiring athletes, people who are Deaf
or Hard of Hearing and their communities, he said.

Visit the website to gather public donations to fund the book -

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003040302/dean-barton-smiths-biography-australias-1st-
deaf-o

From Leader Community News

Australian Government Hearing Services Program
The Program aims to reduce the impact of hearing loss. The Voucher component of the Program
provides eligible people with access to hearing services that can include:

A comprehensive hearing assessment performed by a qualified hearing services provider

Access to a wide range of quality fully subsidised hearing devices, made by leading
manufacturers
If you are fitted with a hearing device, you will receive advice on how to achieve maximum
benefit from your device
Further support and hearing services, which can be accessed even if fitting a hearing device is
not suitable
Access to an optional annual maintenance agreement where, for a small fee, you can receive
repairs and batteries to support your hearing device.

People are eligible for a voucher if they are an Australian citizen or permanent resident 21 years
or older and a:
Pensioner Concession Card holder
Department of Veterans Affairs Gold Card holder, or a White Card holder issued for specific
conditions that include hearing loss
Centrelink client receiving Sickness Allowance
Dependent of a person in one of the above categories
Member of the Australian Defence Force
Referral by the Disability Employment Services (Disability Management Services) Program
National Disability Insurance Scheme participant with hearing needs, referred by a planner
from the National Disability Insurance Agency

http://www.hearingservices.gov.au/
Neanderthal man with hearing loss lived to old age
thanks to help from his community
Neanderthals generally get a bad rap. Many people don't think of these extinct human relatives
as much more than primitive cavemen. But scientists are learning more about their ways, and
they reveal a complex story.

The latest chapter involves a Neanderthal man who lived

into his forties despite having a limp, missing an arm and
being deaf. Neanderthals who lived past forty were into
their old age. He most likely got there through the care of
his fellow Neanderthals.

Anthropologist Erik Trinkaus from Washington University

examined the remains of Shanidar 1, a Neanderthal who
lived around 50,000 years ago. Archaeologists unearthed
Shanidar 1 in 1957 in a cave in Iraq. The bones tell a
fascinating story.

Shanidar 1 (also known as Lucky) had his right arm

amputated at the elbow, suffered injuries to his right leg
and received a blow to the skull when young. Bony
growths were found in his ear canals that would have
caused deafness. Erik Trinkaus said these disabilities
would have left the Neanderthal dependent on other
members of his group for survival.
By Amanda Kooser, https://www.cnet.com/news/neanderthal-skull-deaf-washington-university-st-louis/

Research participants needed

Moving forward in library service provision for people with an invisible disability
This study is looking at the information, access, services, and resource needs of people with an
invisible disability in relation to public libraries. An invisible disability is invisible to other people,
like hearing loss, dyslexia, vision loss, autism, mental health conditions, learning disabilities, and
many others.

Anyone over the age of 18 who has an invisible disability can participate. You will be asked to
take part in an interview of between thirty and forty-five minutes at a time and in a public place
that is convenient. This could be face to face in a caf, library, or council building; or by
telephone or online (like Skype or FaceTime). The interview will include questions like your
thoughts on public libraries and how you look for information.

Contact the researcher, Rebecca Muir at Charles Sturt University, rmuir@csu.edu.au

Hearing Awareness Week in 2018

World Hearing Day, presented by the World Health Organisation, is scheduled for Saturday 3
March 2018. Hearing Awareness Week will be held in the lead up to the international Day,
beginning on Sunday 25 February 2018.

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