Building sustainable integrated services – Linking models of collaborative care for infants with hearing loss in Tasmania.

Katie Neal¹, Tiffany Slater¹, Miss Michelle Chacksfield³, Dr Pia Watkins^1,2

¹The Shepherd Centre, , Australia, ²Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University , , Australia, ³Tasmanian Health Service – Royal Hobart Hospital, Hobart, Australia

Purpose:
To explore the expansion of specialised early intervention services in Tasmania to support equity and access.

Issue:
Newborn hearing screening provides a gateway to intervention and education for infants diagnosed with hearing loss. In more regional and remote locations, such as those found in Tasmania, access to seamless integrated early intervention service pathways from the point of screening and diagnosis can be complex. This complexity likely reflects the challenges faced by existing health systems in providing equitable and sustainable intervention services which can result in restricted choice and availability for families. From another perspective it also provides a unique opportunity to build links across services and organisations creating choice and flexibility in service provision.

Scope:
This systematic clinical review looks at the clinical makeup and pathways of 34 Tasmanian children entering specialised intervention services and tracks their speech, language and listening development across time comparative to a matched cohort.

Conclusion:
Results show that for a number of children consistent access to early intervention support services has been difficult. Findings demonstrate that early access to consistent specialised support increases the likelihood of improvement in listening and spoken language skills. They also indicate that transparent and co-ordinated support across teams and programs has started to shift the diagnostic to intervention timeframes for children in Tasmania.

The challenge for early intervention is to provide accessible and equitable services across Tasmania. This requires an inclusive and collaborative service model that links diagnosis, fitting and intervention. Service collaboration ensures that families are able to access a coordinated approach to care which will allow us to optimise outcomes.

Biography:

Biography to come.