Ms Kayla Elliott1,2, Dr Danya F Vears1,3,5, A/Prof Valerie Sung1,2,4, Dr Zeffie Poulakis1,2,4, Dr Jane Sheehan1,2,4
1Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Parkville, AUS, 2Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, AUS, 3Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Carlton, AUS, 4Centre for Community Child Health, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, AUS, 5Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Universal newborn hearing screening facilitates early detection of hearing loss in newborns. Previous literature suggests parents find the pathway to their child’s hearing loss diagnosis overwhelming and stressful. In recognition of specific parental needs, support services have been established within some universal newborn hearing screening programs, like the Early Support Service within the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program. However, there remains limited research about parents perspective of their support needs during this time. We aimed to explore parental support needs along the newborn hearing diagnosis pathway, within the context of a well-established universal newborn hearing screening program.
We conducted semi-structured interviews with parents three to six months post confirmation of their newborn’s diagnosis of bilateral moderate-profound sensorineural hearing loss. We analysed data using inductive content analysis.
We interviewed thirteen parents of ten children. Parents described high satisfaction with the support they received and found proactive contact from the service to be valuable. Some parents did not feel prepared for a diagnosis of hearing loss, feeling like they had been reassured transient causes, such as middle ear fluid, caused the positive hearing screen result. There were mixed responses to the helpfulness of parent mentor support, with some parents finding it very useful and others too confronting in the early period of diagnosis. Additional support requirements included access to therapeutic psychological assistance to help parents adjust to their child’s hearing loss diagnosis.
These findings provide insight into how the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program is supporting parents and may help inform how this service can be further enriched for families along the hearing diagnosis pathway. The findings from this study have implications for practice, such as modifying the delivery of information following the newborn hearing screen and a referral pathway for therapeutic counselling.
Biography:
Kayla completed her Bachelor of Biomedicine (Honours) at the University of Melbourne. During her qualitative research project, Kayla worked with the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening program to explore parent support needs following the newborn hearing screen. Kayla now works as a Research Assistant at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She splits her time between the VicCHILD (Victorian Childhood Hearing Longitudinal Databank) project and the Melbourne Children’s Campus Mental Health Strategy. She is a strong believer in consumer engagement in research to help guide service improvement and delivery that meets the needs of children and their families. kayla.elliott@mcri.edu.au