We’re pleased to announce new partnerships with Better Hearing Australia (BHA) and Utah State University. These partnerships support our commitment to working with professional, patient, and university networks to extend the reach of person-centered hearing care.
The Ida Institute’s Managing Director, Lise Lotte Bundesen expressed, “We are thrilled to welcome our new partners and excited to be working with them to further person-centered hearing care. Based in Australia and the US, each organization brings great experience and insight from their respective countries. This helps to create a more robust picture of global hearing care implementation around the world.”
Better Hearing Australia
Better Hearing Australia (BHA) is the longest running independent hearing advocacy and consumer advice organization in Australia. The organization advocates for the needs of people with hearing loss and assists them with their economic independence and social connectedness.
As well as providing information and support online, BHA helps thousands of people in person through branches across the country. The branches provide services like volunteer-run drop in centers, education programs, hearing loops and education about acoustically friendly design.
Speaking of the importance of person-centered hearing care, CEO of BHA Victoria and Ida liaison Caitlin Barr said she looks forward to the Ida Institute and BHA learning from each other to make a greater difference in people’s lives. “Person-centered care is an essential requirement for the future of hearing care,” she said, “and needs to transition from a term that many people use, to a philosophy and approach that people follow and is tangible and measurable.”
Utah State University
Utah State University’s respected audiology program makes use of extensive on-site clinics for student practicums which include hearing assessments, hearing aid services, cochlear implant mapping and balance testing. They also offer interdisciplinary training for audiology, speech-language pathology, and deaf education students to prepare them to work with children up to six years of age who are deaf or have hearing loss. The school also offers the interdisciplinary Listening and Spoken Language lab where students complete rotations in early intervention, preschool classroom, and individual therapy to help them learn effective collaboration. In addition, USU offers interdisciplinary training in their new Sorenson Center for Clinical Excellence for graduate students in audiology, speech-language pathology, psychology, and other areas of behavior health.
Department Head Karen Muñoz explained the benefit of the Utah State and Ida partnership saying, “It will bring increased awareness of the importance of person-centered care and support a process for learning how to teach PCC so we can benefit from implementation in practice. Person-centered care is the foundation of the work we do as audiologists and I appreciate the Ida Institute’s efforts to build capacity for PCC in audiology.”