World Hearing Organisation Ear and Hearing Care Resources for all

Leona Pejcharová of SUKI, in the Czech Republic, has been sharing the WHO resources and raising awareness of them and how much they have to offer us all. You can find them on Deafness and hearing loss on the WHO website.   Thanks Leona!

The World Hearing Forum (WHF) is part of the World Health Organization (WHO). Its goal is to monitor the situation regarding hearing, hearing impairment, hearing rehabilitation and access to hearing care worldwide. SUKI is a member organization of the WHF, participates in meetings and is actively involved in the Changemakers group, specifically the Resources Group. The goal of this group is to facilitate access to important information for everyone who needs it. We deal with the clarity of websites, translations of materials, etc.

The WHF points out that the need for increased hearing care is quite significant on a global scale: “More than 430 million people need rehabilitation due to hearing loss, 34 million of whom are children. In addition, more than 1 billion young people are at risk of hearing loss due to noise exposure during leisure activities and the use of personal audio devices. These numbers are expected to increase significantly in the coming decades unless measures are taken to prevent and treat hearing loss.” (WHF website, 2024)

Thanks to the joint activities of WHO, doctors, organizations and industry, the first improvements are slowly starting to appear. Have you noticed that when listening to music from a mobile phone with headphones, when you increase the volume, the phone warns you at one point that you have exceeded the recommended maximum limit and that it is not advisable to use the headphones at this setting for too long? Some smartwatches also warn you when you are in a noisy environment.

The Resources available include a range of very clear infographics, reports and information resources- all for free.

The most important document of recent years is the World Hearing Report from 2021. The material discusses hearing in general, devotes a lot of attention to preventive measures, the prevalence of hearing impairment in the population and across age groups, the stigma associated with hearing impairment, and last but not least, it provides recommendations related to medical hearing care and its availability for all who need it.

Click here to download the WHO Ear and Hearing Care Resources (available in different languages).