However...ear test results from the West Australian metropolitan women's jail, Bandyup, were released at the end of last year. The tests were commissioned by Corrective Services after concerns about the large number of women who appeared to need treatment.
The results showed almost half of Indigenous imprisoned women not only have a hearing loss, but of the 104 Indigenous women tested by TSH:
- 45 required referral to a GP,
- 13 had burst eardrums,
- seven had visibly scarred eardrums and
- four had ears that were discharging pus(most likely from Chronic Supperative Otitis Media).
Awareness of ear disease has rocketed in the last year thanks to the efforts of the Inquiry, and the test results from TSH debunk the age-old belief that Otitis Media("Glue Ear") is solely a minor ailment, limited to childhood, that occurred in isolated regions.
The test results show ear disease is also a serious problem for Indigenous people in the metro area, and the effects of the disease on ears and hearing can last a lifetime.
Previous research has shown the disease is very prevalent in regional and remote areas and 80%-90% of Indigenous children(aged 1-4 years) suffer from Otitis Media(OM) and those rates, are among the worst in the world. A lot of those kids will end up with the more serious and exceedingly painful, Chronic Supperative Otitis Media(CSOM), recurring indefinitely, which causes lifelong auditory processing impairment and ear defects.
The difficulties of growing up with hearing loss is only just beginning to be addressed, but the implications for a child's psychological and emotional growth, of growing up with everyday chronic pain, seems to be relatively unchartered territory.
In the regions rife with OM, the rates decrease as kids get older(around 54% of school-aged kids in NT). However, the brain's auditory link develops at around the age of 2-3 years, creating a battle with impaired auditory processing that effectively, lasts a lifetime. Accurate information about auditory processing is still not very widely known and this means the funding, services and support are still limited.
One in ten non-Indigenous female inmates tested had a hearing loss/ear disease, as well.
Poor social(plus justice, education, employment, and anything else hinging on communications skills) outcomes are also reflected in the high rates of non-Indigenous inmates with hearing loss, who were also disproportionately represented among the prison test group, compared to the number of women with ear disease on the other side of the fence.
The 2010 Senate Hearing Inquiry recommended that all Australian inmates have their ears examined and their hearing tested and that those found to have a loss should then have the circumstances surrounding their incarceration, such as their offences and their court hearings, investigated by the state Ombudsman to screen for miscarriages of justice. At the outset, the Senate identified that there are approximately 4 million Australians with a hearing loss.
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This is great article but you mention issues of growing up with chronic pain. Many episodes of OM are asymtomatic and not associated with pain, which means they are less likely to get medical attention. See the folowing from *.23 in Senate inqirt report the "In some cases ear infections in Indigenous children go unreported and
untreated, leading to damaged hearing. The committee heard evidence that whereas
many children experience pain associated with ear infections (thereby prompting
medical examination of their ears), recent studies found this was not always the case
among Indigenous children.25 Whilst the reason for this is not known, there was some
speculation that early onset of otitis media may be a factor:
…a normal eardrum is like a very thin sheet of glass and you can see
through it, with a lot of nerve fibres running through it. When the eardrum
bulges we think that is what causes the pain. Because when you examine
these children they have red bulging drums.
Interestingly, we know that in non-Aboriginal children the pain usually
only lasts six to 12 hours, and the bulging does not resolve in that time, so it
seems that it is the stretching of the nerves that is painful. It is the initial
stretching that causes the pain. We think that in Aboriginal children, who
have already had the fluid there for a long time, the drum is much thicker
and the nerves just cannot be stretched as much."
That is very interesting, Damien. I've never seen a person with OM or CSOM(lifelong) that doesn't have absolutely chronic, blistering and utterly piercing pain accompanying it, and the years of suffering don't lessen it. Every flu, cold, or throat infection also gives you referred pain - it's stays a vulnerability.
But it is different when you live with it 24-7, you see those symptoms that doctors sometimes don't. I guess also when it occurs in kids - their symptoms aren't always readily picked up by adults. My ear infections reached a pretty terrible stage before they were detected as a youngster too, I recall. Ear pain is a bit obfuscated - confusing, maybe because of where it is located?
Usually when you're caring for someone(or more than one) who has the condition it's one on one, whereas there are a lot of patients for doctors and the visits are momentary, plus they don't have to listen to the air-raid crying every night I suppose. Doctors have the power to make the big changes(anti-biotics, surgery etc) but they can't observe the little daily things all the time like a parent or a sibling can.
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