 Global Integration UpdatesCommon Ground for the Common Good Be the people we need--Build the world we need
Special News--March 2022
Global Hearing Health Hearing for Life and Listening with Care
World Hearing Day--World Report on Hearing--The House Institute Cochlear image from World Hearing Day, 2021 WHOPause and listen--what do you hear right now?
Personal hearing health requires an informed and intentional practice.
And global hearing health is a key part of "ensuring healthy lives for all at all ages."Hearing Loss is a Bigger Issue Than You Think
Watch this brief overview video by the House Institute----------Overview
In this Update we focus on hearing health and hearing loss--crucial areas for health, wellbeing, and sustainable development--from the individual through the global levels. We invite you to join us in the growing efforts for promoting and protecting a) hearing health for all people around the world throughout their entire lives and b) “the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms...and respect for [the] inherent dignity” of all persons experiencing hearing loss (Preamble--Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006).
Global Perspectives
--Make listening safe. "Over 1 billion young adults are at risk of permanent, avoidable hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices" [especially from entertainment venues and due to unsafe use of personal audio devices].
--Change our course. "By 2050 nearly 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss and at least 700 million will require hearing rehabilitation."
--Scale up care. "An annual additional investment of less than US$ 1.40 per person is needed to scale up ear and hearing care services globally." Deafness and Hearing Loss, WHO (April 2021)
Hearing health and hearing loss are not mentioned specifically in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their 169 targets. Nonetheless they are an essential part of SDGs’ overall commitment to "ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages" (SDG 3) and to eliminate disability-influenced disparities that hinder quality education (SDG 4.5); decent work and employment (SDG 8.5); social, political, and economic inclusion (SDG 10.2); safe, affordable, and accessible transportation (SDG 11.2); and healthy environments [versus noise pollution/damage] (SDG 11.3); which all collectively influence “eliminating poverty in all its forms” (SDG1).
Spotlight Resources for Hearing Health
Specifically we feature three resources to call practical attention--individually through globally--to the importance of preventing hearing loss, improving hearing care, and supporting those with hearing loss:
--1. Advocacy and Action Spotlight. World Hearing Day--3 March 2022, launched in 2007 and with this year’s theme being “To hear for life, listen with care!”
--2. Research and Guidance Spotlight. World Report on Hearing (March 2021), World Health Organization, providing evidence-based guidance for integrating quality ear and hearing care services into national health plans of universal health coverage.
--3. Organization and Innovation Spotlight. The House Institute (Clinic and Foundation), celebrating 75+ years as a leading institution for better hearing health through neuroscience and ear research, treatment and surgery, medical training, advocacy and resources.
We finish the Update with two items. First, there are some Personal Reflections on hearing health shared by a colleague working with The House Institute Foundation--Erin, our daughter! And second, there is a list of "17 Safe Hearing Practices" (SHPs) that can contibute to people's hearing health and hence to their overall health and wellbeing as per SDG 3 and other SDGs (SHPs for the SDGs!).
Applications--Making It Personal
--Your hearing health. List a few ways to improve your hearing health and hearing habits--such as avoiding exposure to damaging noises.
--Your community's hearing health. Identify a few ways to include hearing health for staff and support for people with hearing loss into your organizations, communities, and spheres of influence.
--Your world's hearing health. Choose one or more of the resources in this Update to learn more about global issues-efforts for hearing health and hearing loss.
Going Further into the Global Health and Development Context:
World Health Day: Building a Fairer, Healthier World (GI Update, April 2021)
Wellbeing for Who? Global Reports from Seven Sectors (GI Update, February 2020)
Global Action Plans: Healing Our Globe-Ails? (GI Update, June 2019)
Warm greetings,
Kelly and Michèle   MCAresources@gmail.com
Featured Resources
Global Hearing Health
Hearing for Life and Listening with Care
World Hearing Day--World Report on Hearing--The House Institute
 Image from World Report on Hearing. WHO (2021, page 13) "Hearing loss has often been referred to as an 'invisible disability', not just because of the lack of visible symptoms, but because it has long been stigmatized in communities and ignored by policy-makers. Unaddressed hearing loss is the third largest cause of years lived with disability globally. It affects people of all ages, as well as families and economies.
An estimated US$ 1 trillion is lost each year due to our collective failure to adequately address hearing loss. While the financial burden is enormous, what cannot be quantified is the distress caused by the loss of communication, education and social interaction that accompanies unaddressed hearing loss. What makes this matter more pressing than ever is the fact that the number of people with hearing loss is likely to rise considerably in the coming decades." World Report on Hearing. WHO (2021, page v) ----------
Resource 1
Advocacy and Action Spotlight
World Hearing Day--3 March 2022
"World Hearing Day is an annual global advocacy event for raising awareness
regarding hearing loss and promoting ear and hearing care
and calling for action to address hearing loss and related issues."
World Hearing Day website
----------
Theme: To hear for life, listen with care!
Visit the website to connect and particpate!
Hashtags: #safelistening #worldhearingday #hearingcare “This year’s theme To hear for life, listen with care [focuses] on the importance and means of hearing loss prevention through safe listening, with the following key messages: - It is possible to have good hearing across the life course through ear and hearing care
- Many common causes of hearing loss can be prevented, including hearing loss caused by exposure to loud sounds
- ‘Safe listening’ can mitigate the risk of hearing loss associated with recreational sound exposure
- WHO calls upon governments, industry partners and civil society to raise awareness for and implement evidence-based standards that promote safe listening
Target groups include decision makers, venue managers and owners of entertainment venues, and the general public especially young adults.
The World Hearing Day will mark the launch of the Global standard for safe listening entertainment venues, mSafeListening handbook, and Media toolkit for journalists. All stakeholders in the field are invited to organize events and activities to raise awareness on hearing loss and widely disseminate the WHO Global standard for safe listening entertainment venues to promote its adoption and implementation.” World Hearing Day 2022 website
Resource 2
Research and Guidance Spotlight
World Report on Hearing (2021)
“The World Report on Hearing envisions a world in which no individual experiences
hearing loss due to preventable causes, and those with hearing loss can achieve
their full potential through rehabilitation, education and empowerment.”
World Report on Hearing. WHO (2021, page 1)
---------- “The World Report on Hearing was developed with the key purpose of promoting global action for equitable access to ear and hearing care in all settings across the world. The report provides clear evidence to target hearing loss as a global public health priority and outlines the H.E.A.R.I.N.G. package of interventions that countries should prioritize, taking into account their national circumstances. The many challenges facing countries in these endeavours are outlined in the report....
Through the World report on hearing, the World Health Organization highlights the need for, and means of, promoting ear and hearing care to serve the SDG agenda and its relevance for everyone irrespective of age, nationality or hearing status. The report calls upon Member States to initiate affirmative action that both includes, and addresses, the needs of those living with ear diseases and hearing loss, as well as the populations at risk of these conditions. It also invites civil society, developmental public health agencies, professional societies, health-care providers and researchers to respond to this global call so that all people can enjoy good hearing as part of good health and wellbeing throughout their life course.
Goals and Objectives of the Report. The overarching goals of the report are to make ear and hearing care a global public health priority through presenting its relevance across the life course, and to define a public health approach for addressing this form of care from the prenatal stage to adulthood and into older age.
The objectives outlined in the report include:
• establishing hearing loss across the life course as a public health priority among policy-makers;
• drawing attention to the existing solutions to prevent and rehabilitate hearing loss, as well as the challenges in their delivery and access;
• documenting scientific evidence and country experiences on the approaches to build integrated people-centred ear and hearing care services, delivered through national health systems; and
• making recommendations and setting targets that stimulate country-level action for improved access to ear and hearing care, through integration of the H.E.A.R.I.N.G. package of interventions as part of universal health coverage.”
World Report on Hearing WHO (2021, excerpts from pages 1-3)
Resource 3
Organization and Innovation Spotlight
The House Institute
The House Institute will be going live with a virtual Ask Me Anything Event
on World Hearing Day with two neurologists. You can join on March 3rd at 8AM PST
on their YouTube channel.
 “When Dr. Howard P. House founded the House Institute Foundation (then called the Los Angeles Foundation of Otology) in 1946, his mission “so all may hear” may have seemed more aspirational than attainable. As we find ourselves on the brink of an international movement underpinned by a multi-faceted approach to improve hearing health, his vision, now our vision, is more possible than ever.” Global Hearing Health--The House Institute
---------- The House Institute is a preeminent center for the treatment of ear disease and neurological disorders. Over the decades, the House Institute’s neurotologists and neurosurgeons have led the way in treating the causes of hearing, balance and skull-base disorders with cutting-edge practices and procedures (including Meniere’s disease, acoustic neuromas, skull-base tumors, neurofibromatosis, etc.). In addition, the Los Angeles-based team’s audiological staff works in close conjunction with its physicians to provide the most advanced audiometric evaluations and treatment options to ensure that patients receive the best treatment possible.
The House Institute has pioneered innovative research in otology, neurotology, and neurosurgery. It has been a leader in defining the causes of hearing and neurological disorders and improving sensory devices and diagnostic techniques which has led to improved treatments and care for millions around the world. Some of its research milestones include developing the first: cochlear implant for use in clinical trials, digital hearing aid in the United States, functional noise hearing test (HINT), and central neural prosthesis for hearing restoration (Auditory Brainstem Implant).
More Reources and Activities from the House Institute
--Personal Stories and Practical Advice on Hearing Loss. House Institute Foundation
Now Listen--with Krystle “Kay” (2021-2022). In this 6-part web series (60 minutes total), Krystle Shakespeare, an upbeat social entrepreneur and wellness professional, provides insight into her experience as an individual with hearing loss and offers applicable advice for people who wish to be supportive of others with hearing loss. Each short episode covers a specific topic, from her journey to accepting her disability, to her experience in the workplace and how employers can create more inclusive work environments for those with hearing loss.
--Hearing Science Accelerator, a workshop that brings together the medical community once a year to focus on a specific disease--hearing and neurological disorders have seen little advancements or cures.
--Training for hearing health professionals worldwide.
--Educational resources for the public.
--House Calls magazine with news and updates on hearing health and the work of the House Institute.
--To be further developed--direct medical services to high-need communities worldwide by sending teams of surgeons, audiologists, and public health professionals on projects that support and invigorate long-term, sustainable programs.
The above information is adapted from the House Institute Foundation’s website.
Personal ReflectionsGlobal Health--Raise the Audibility!
Hearing Health Ascends into Global Awareness
Erin O’Donnell
 In spite of my initial reluctance...
I am grateful for my mother’s insistence on safeguarding my young ears!
To this day I carry a pair of earplugs at the ready wherever I go.
. Shrill sounds blared from the boombox and ricocheted off the polished tile floors. A room of 5-year-old girls stomped their flamenco heels, swung their long skirts and clicked their castañuelas in time to the emotive, Andalusian folk songs.
I loved to dance. What I liked considerably less were the earplugs my mom forced me to wear. She was a determined parent and I was a compliant preschooler. I endured the prodding of fingers at their gray wax, t he stream of questions I could guess at but not answer, and the uncomfortable staring. Wearing never-before-seen earplugs at the village flamenco class added reason for the little Spanish girls to scrutinize the strange, blonde-haired newcomer and did little for my attempt at assimilation. But today, I am grateful for my mother’s insistence on safeguarding my young ears. This was a world that lacked public awareness of the dangers of soaring decibels. Twenty-five years on, and that world is rapidly changing.
When people ask about my work life, and I speak of “global hearing health,” I am met with expressions conveying confusion and curiosity. While “global health” has been adopted into vernacular and correlates to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) promoting healthy lives and wellbeing for all, “global hearing health” is still an emergent term in most circles. However, with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) historic resolution (WHA70.13) in 2017 prioritizing the prevention of deafness and hearing loss, global hearing health now finds itself in the ranks of such prominent public health initiatives as mental health awareness, maternal, child, and newborn health, and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Erin O’Donnell is Associate Director of Education and Global Health Programs at the House Institute Foundation (HIF). The excerpts above are from an article in the HIF's House Calls magazine (Winter 2020-2021). Reproduced with permission. Erin is our daughter and we are delighted to feature the work of HIF in this Update. We are also grateful fo her review of this Update and suggestions to make it as accurate and helpful as possible.
17 Safe Hearing Practices
Supporing Hearing Health and People with Hearing Loss
Things we need to know--and do!
 Image from World Hearing Day--3 March 201517 Safe Hearing Prctices (SHPs)
Contributing to the 17 SDGs with 17 SHPs!Erin, Michèle, and Kelly O'Donnell1. Personal listening devices--Keep volume below 75 decibels (dB). Note that in some ways, you can compare the dB scale to the Richter scale, which measures the intensity of earthquakes. The measurement levels increase almost exponentially. 10 dB is 10 times more intense than 0 dB. A sound that is 1,000 times more intense than 0 dB (near total silence) is 30 dB.2. Exercise classes--Turn down the volume (sustained high decibels are most damaging) and insist!
3. Venues with loud music and noises--Wear earplugs at some concerts, religious services, movie theaters, firework displays, etc.
4. Vacuuming/hoovering and certain kitchen appliances--Wear earplugs.
5. Mowing the lawn and operating loud tools and machinery--Wear earplugs.
6. Making music--Monitor the decibels and wear earplugs when needed. Depending on the acoustics of the room, instruments can be louder than you think!
7. Loud kitchen appliances (blenders, coffee grinders, etc.)--Wear earplugs.
8. Hearing tests--Get a professional hearing test at least by age 50 to obtain a baseline on your hearing.
9. Testing now--Check your hearing now using the WHO app, HearWHO. This is non-diagnostic and for preliminary screening purposes only.
10. Earplugs--Buy reusable earplugs! Earplugs have come a long way in the last decade. Instead of using disposable foam earplugs, consider reusable earplugs. They maintain the fidelity of sound while lowering the overall decibel level (foam earplugs have a muffling effect) and can be inserted with accuracy more easily. A few favorites are available from: Etymotic Research Inc., EarPeace. and Westone.
11. Hearing aids for you--Wear both hearing aids (if you have one for each ear) and keep them adjusted and serviced properly.
12. Hearing aids for others--Be supportive of others who wear hearing aids. It's normal!
13. Interacting with people who are hard of hearing--Be aware of how to speak clearly (consonants are especially hard to distinguish) and slowly to those who are hard of hearing. Directly face the individual so they can see your mouth and to ensure the sound of your voice is pointed in their direction. Minimize background noise and noise from multiple sources if possible.
14. Ear cleaning--Avoid cleaning your ears with Q-Tips or any similar object. This can damage the eardrum; it can also impact wax over time which can lead to hearing loss until the wax is removed. In this case, wax is safely removable by having a medical professional clean your ears. Consult with a medical professional about products that soften wax.
15. Noise pollution--Make a list of the main sources of noise pollution in your life and environments (loudness and annoying sounds, etc.) Identify and monitor your stress levels related to noise pollution. Diligently adjust what you can and protect yourself and loved ones. This includes work settings as well.
16. Tinnitus--If you are experiencing ringing in the ears, a condition called tinnitus, this may be an indicator of hearing loss. Seek help from a hearing professional. Have a look at 5 Facts on Tinnitus Here by Dr. House.
17.+ Add your own good practices here--List additional ways for you to support hearing health and prevent hearing loss!
Member Care Associates
MCAresources@gmail.com
 Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit, Christian organization working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations across sectors (e.g., mission, humanitarian, peace, health, and development sectors) as well as global mental health and integrity/anti-corruption, all with a view towards collaboratively supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, resource development, and publications.
Global Integration
Global Integration (GI) is a framework for actively and responsibly engaging in our world--locally to globally. It emphasizes connecting relationally and contributing relevantly on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity, in light of our integrity, commitments, and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, human rights, faith-based). GI encourages a variety of people to be at the “global tables” and in the "global trenches"--and everything in-between--in order to help research, shape, and monitor agendas, policies, and action for all people and the planet. It intentionally links building the world we need with being the people we need.
Our Global Integration Updates are designed to help shape and support the emerging diversity of global integrators who as learners-practitioners are committed to the "common ground for the common good." 2015-current (65+ issues). Some examples of foundational ones:
Doomsday?--June 2017
Living in Global Integrity--April 2017
Peace and Security--December 2016
Global Citizenship--June 2016
Faith-Based Partners in Transformation--August 2015
------ Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability;
it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God,
and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 1963) |
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