The Ministry of Health and Wellness yesterday announced plans for the establishment of a Technical Working Group that is to marshal the development of a National Policy for Hearing Health in Jamaica.
The revelation came from Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton, speaking at the 2020 hearing mission of the Starkey Hearing Foundation. The mission was hosted at the Chinese Benevolent Association in Kingston yesterday (Tuesday, March 3), which was observed as World Hearing Day.
“This year, World Hearing Day has as its key message the fact that timely and effective interventions can ensure that people with hearing loss are able to achieve their potential. At the Ministry of Health & Wellness, we embrace and endorse this message and are doing our part – in collaboration with organisations like the Starkey Hearing Foundation – to make this a reality for the close to 200,000 Jamaicans who suffer from hearing loss,” he said.
As such, the Minister said a number of actions are being taken, including work on the National Policy for Hearing Health.
“I will be naming a Technical Working Group on Hearing Health, which will have as its mandate the development of the National Policy on Hearing Health in Jamaica. And this is even as it provides oversight and technical advice for the full integration of hearing health into primary health care,” he noted.
“The development of the policy, I hasten to add, is a priority for Jamaica, with its importance underscored by data coming out of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which in 2017 highlighted hearing care and hearing loss as an important public health concern,” Tufton added.
Since 2017, the WHO reports, there has been more than 100 million more cases of hearing impairment, and the figures have increased from 360 million in 2017 to 466 million in 2019.
Those numbers, the WHO estimates, will grow to a total of 630 million persons by 2030, and 900 million by 2050, if appropriate actions are not taken to reverse the rapid increase.
Of note is that children and the elderly now account for the majority of persons with hearing problems as nearly 90% of the 466 million recorded are living in low and middle-income countries such as Jamaica.
There are, according to the Minister, also efforts to deepen the collaboration with partners, including the Starkey Hearing Foundation.
“Indeed, the coming weeks are also to see us formalising our partnership with the Foundation, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, in recognition of the great work that is already being done and more that is to come,” Tufton said.