Ida Fellow Dr. Deborah Viviane Ferrari has recently incorporated the Ida Institute’s tools and ethnographic films in a new distance learning program that will promote family-centered, holistic hearing health care throughout Brazil.
In partnership with the Hospital Samaritano in Sao Paulo, the University of Sao Paulo, and the Brazilian Ministry of Health, Deborah Ferrari has developed an Auditory Rehabilitation Distance Learning Course. The course will train hearing care professional on how to provide family-centered, audiologic rehabilitation services to infants and toddlers. Over 100 audiologists, psychologists, and ENT specialists throughout Brazil will participate in the two year distance learning course, which begins in October 2012.
“We are very excited about this new course. Newborn hearing screening was approved about a year and a half ago in Brazil. So, we expect many more children to come into the hearing system,” states Deborah Ferrari. “Now that we are implementing universal newborn screening, we need to prepare professionals to effectively work with families, not just the patient. In this way, we can improve the entire family’s journey with hearing loss.”
The Ida Institute’s approach to holistic, patient-centered care is evident throughout the distance learning course. The curriculum for the two year course includes the Ida Institute’s Mirror Exercises, the Reflective Journal, and a modified version of the Dilemma Game, which focuses on family-centered questions and situations. Combined, the tools and methods will ensure that hearing care professionals in Brazil are prepared to explore the family’s perspective on hearing loss and incorporate the family’s needs into the rehabilitation process.
“With this course, we aim to facilitate a significant change in the clinician’s professional environment. For those clinical services that are not yet using a family-centered approach to pediatric audiology, we want to give them the knowledge that they need and facilitate the transfer and implementation of the model,” states Deborath Ferrari. “Our initial class of 105 participants is not a very large number, but we expect these people to share this knowledge with their colleagues and hearing care professionals in their network.”
Deborah Ferrari is currently a Professor in the Department of Audiology at the College of Bauru, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She recently attended the Ida Institute’s latest seminar series on Managing Change and contributed to our soon-to-be-released online Clinical Supervisor Course.