Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my statement and ask some questions of the Minister for Health and Social Services about infant hearing programs in the NWT. I know we have an Infant Hearing Program and I guess my question to the Minister is if he could explain to me so that I’m truly clear on what we have.
What is the content of our Infant Hearing Program and when was it first started in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A universal newborn hearing screening program was introduced as part of the GNWT’s Early Childhood Development Action Plan, 2001-2004. Stanton, the audiology department there has been delivering the universal newborn hearing screening program since June 2004, which is called the IHP, or the Infant Hearing Program.
This program is delivered at all birthing centres in the Northwest Territories and aims to identify infants with permanent hearing loss by the time they’re three months old and provide the necessary services to support communication development by the time they’re six months of age.
Since beginning the IHP, more than 3,650 newborn babies have been screened for hearing loss, and this is as of March 31, 2013. Since 2005, the IHP has tracked outcomes and produced an annual outcome indicator report.
As indicated, in addition to the IHP, children are screened for hearing impairments during routine development screening or the well-baby clinics throughout the Northwest Territories. So, currently all babies in the Northwest Territories have access to screening for hearing loss or difficulties in the Northwest Territories. All babies. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that explanation. I guess I’m just not exactly sure, my understanding is that this is a voluntary service that parents do not have to have their kids tested at birth.
So I’d like to know from the Minister, he said that the program runs in all birthing centres, but that presumably means that if a child is born, for instance, in Alberta, they have to go to Edmonton to be born, if they’re not screened there, when they come back here do we know whether or not they’ve been screened?
Can the Minister confirm to me or give me some assurance that every child in the NWT, any newborn child, whether they’re a week old or five minutes old, are screened for hearing loss? Thank you.
Thank you. Babies born in the Northwest Territories utilize the IHP program here that we have in the Northwest Territories. As far as NWT residents that are born outside of the Northwest Territories, I can’t say that they are receiving the IHP because I don’t know what programs exist in other jurisdictions. But I can say that through health clinics and health processes here in the Northwest Territories we do have well-baby clinics, and hearing loss is one of the things that’s assessed for parents and babies. So if somebody is born out of the Northwest Territories and comes back and goes to a well-baby clinic, they will get the same assessment. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. Some of the information that I have indicates that we try to identify children or infants with permanent hearing loss. My concern goes to infants who have some hearing loss, because some hearing loss is going to impact kids as much as permanent hearing loss.
So to the Minister, if we have a child with some hearing loss as opposed to permanent hearing loss, do we follow up with supports and with treatment? Thank you.
There are a wide range of degrees of hearing loss that children may experience. Regardless of the hearing loss identified, rehabilitation services are provided. So hearing aid prescriptions and other types of things, fitting. There’s also speech-language pathology which is available and will help individuals who have some degree of hearing loss. So there are programs available to youth, children and babies in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and thanks again to the Minister. My last question goes to the staff that he was just talking about, the speech-language pathologists and the audiologists. In my time here I have learned that we have great difficulty often in filling both of those positions because they’re very specialized.
These are hard to recruit positions and I don’t actually know the status today of the individual positions, which ones are vacant, which ones are not, but I’ll be happy to provide that information to the Member and committee right away. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
