Doctor acts as hearing aid
Audiologist backs up hard of hearing group

Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 02/99) - An important resource for the Yellowknife branch of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association is found in the person of Dr. Jim Selinger.

One of two audiologists in the Northwest Territories, Selinger has been working at the Elk's Hearing Centre since 1989 and lends both moral and practical support to association members.

"They're our clients and we try to support them by attending meetings when we can and provide them with resources information about hearing aids and education," he said.

Selinger said he agreed with association members on the need for public education. He said the incidence of hearing loss in the North, is probably double that of the south.

Reasons for this trend are open for debate, he said, but that certain Northern factors such as mining, shotgun blasts, the use of snowmachines and wet, cold weather, are at least partially to blame.

"What we're running into in the North is a higher incidence of school-age kids suffering middle-ear problems and more severe problems," he said. "They get infections and their ear drums are perforated and don't heal properly."

"They should be treatable, but many might be sitting in classrooms with minor hearing loss."

Selinger said the centre already works quite closely with the school board, other physicians and speech pathologists to detect hearing loss that might otherwise go undetected or be mistaken for or lead to learning disabilities.

The doctor said he agrees with association member Ruth Bennington on the need for early testing.

"We're already working on testing newborns before they're discharged from hospital," he said. "That's where the recent push has been and that's where we have the technology now that can test them very quickly."