Poor Funding Allocations for Hearing Aid Treatments

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Monday, 2nd December 2013

New Zealand Government Leaving Children Behind with Poor Funding Allocations for Hearing Aid Treatments

Children with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) are being left behind as a consequence of inadequate funding from the Ministry of Education for the hearing aid treatments they require.

In concurrence with the International Disability Day on Tuesday, 3rd December this year, The National Foundation for the Deaf is spearheading a significant human rights campaign to raise the public profile of children struggling with APD.

Under the current legislation, the Ministry of Health only funds hearing disabilities considered to be of “clinical need” whereas the Ministry of Education only funds technology for students diagnosed with APD to use within school hours. This means the children spend the rest of their hours, outside of school time, with no governmental assistance for hearing support equipment, despite the social isolation and behavioural problems caused by the frustration of living with APD.

Eleven year old Shaun Woods is one child of many that is being left behind. Shaun suffers from central deafness, or APD (Auditory Processing Disorder), as well as sensory deafness. APD affects how the brain processes speech; impairing reading and interpreting the spoken word. Shaun struggles further with competing background noise and therefore requires an amplified FM microphone system to be able to understand in the classroom.

In August 2013, the Ministry of Education denied Shaun funding for the more effective hearing technology and special assistance he requires in order to accurately perceive and understand his teacher's voice. This is in spite of confirmation from three audiology clinics that Shaun does not hear well with hearing aids alone.

APD has impacted negatively on his social and educational participation to the extent of being held back a year. This can be resolved with additional funding to pay for the FM microphone system he desperately needs. An appeal to the Minister for Education to overturn this callous decision failed and Shaun’s case will be lodged with the New Zealand Human Rights Commission.

The issue of eligibility for funding in Shaun's case was not able to be addressed as it is not covered by the Health and Disability Commissioner Act of 1994 (the Commissioner is unable to examine issues of funding or entitlement to a particular service), and the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights (which is restricted to matters relating to the quality of health or disability service and delivery).

The National Foundation for the Deaf considers this a human rights issue. It has successfully campaigned for a re-evaluation of policy to promote social and educational possibilities through funding for more effective and accessible technology, to ensure that children with APD are not left behind.

The Ministry of Education and the Department of Health have done a combined review of APD services and funding which was completed at the end of July 2013. We are yet to see the report and no aspects of the report’s findings have yet been released.

There are many more cases like Shaun’s coming through the system and we urgently need to see some realistic and practical solutions to enable these children to succeed like their hearing able peers.

Why the delay?

ENDS

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