Hearing loss & deafness between rights, talks & facts

On Friday 11 & Saturday 12 a major conference of audiology will be held in Turin, with an interesting title, "Senti chi parla (Hear who's talking)", a two days conference with a clear & interesting programme offering a series of specific speeches (for the complete program see here ). Participation is free.

Some topics are well worth the attention, specially for Italian parents of deaf children.

Friday will be devoted to detailed medical & audiological:

• morning: developments in the neonatal diagnosis & the possibilities of recovery with the speech-therapy
• noon: workshops promoted by companies that develop, produce & market cochlear implants 

Saturday is divided into three sessions:

• two morning sessions: hearing impairment of the adults; the legislative framework of rights
  noon: space for associations that propose 3 panel discussions:

1. their stories so far
2. the state of the art of the LEA (Essential Levels of Assistance)
3. new ways of communicating through the web.

As parents of deaf children, perhaps the topics of greatest interest are those of Saturday, in which it will be possible to understand how those institutions, that are supposed to ensure the rights & provide the services, intend to honour their role or just talk.
I was invited to share some thoughts on Saturday noon giving a speech on "The state of the Essential Levels of Assistance dedicated to deaf persons".

I will share the speech with the colleagues Dr. Danilo Comba (jurist, Associate APIC) & Dr. Joseph Pitta (associated CCS).
The idea is to offer our specific skills, structuring our 3 micro-speech to deepen some specific aspects:

• Danilo Comba explores the latest news on the state of the review of the LEA, which are ready-but-blocked since February 2015by the political impasse & bla-bla; Danilo will focus particularly on the subject of the post-operative care, & on the recent reforms on neonatal screening
• Giuseppe Pitta proposes an in-depth analysis on what an “active implantable medical device” is, & what are the functions covered by the battery both at functional & regulatory level, highlighting the contradiction between the batteries mandatory necessity to let the cochlear implant work, & their being at full costs for the patients
  my speech proposes an analysis of what are the LEA & how they work in practice, giving a particular attention to the reality of our Region case-study situation, focusing on the balance between LEA & extraLEA supports

It will be then the time for the closing speech from the colleague Jodi Cutler, whose blog Affrontiamo la sordità insieme - dai genitori ai genitori (We face deafness together, in italian) is also definitevely worth reading.

There is another person who is doing amazing well for those who face deafness & hearing loss. Her name is Krystyan Krywko, a brilliant person & professional specialized on deafness, & also founder of the blog www.KidswithHearingLoss.org , a blog that “grew out of my search for down to earth, practical, everyday advice for raising a child with hearing loss”.
I have been honoured to collaborate with work Krysty since summer 2015, when we wrote the post "Fathers & grief: a conversation on raising a child with hearing loss". It can be read the original post here & the translation of the Italian version here .

She has recently made a small handbook that goes direct to the deaf person, who-ever a boy or girl, a teenager or an adult person. I have translated & adapted it to the Italian, which can be seen in the pic here; for the italian pdf version click here .
If you are interested in the original from Krysty, & to read many more heart-warming suggestions & clever analysis, please register on her blog at www.kidswithhearingloss.org

If you'll find this post useful, please feel free to share it around, because everyone's right is the right of all, just as the care of each person is the care of all.
 

Talk to you soon. Good all round - buon tutto.