Let’s work together to create a better Canada where all people living with hearing loss experience an optimal quality of life!
Today, 19% of Canadian adults under the age of 70 experience hearing loss such that it negatively affects their ability to comprehend speech. That number rises dramatically among older adults, with three-quarters of men and two-thirds of women experiencing significant hearing loss between the ages of 80 and 85.
This document, Towards a National Hearing Health Strategy: An Agenda for Change, is a critical milestone in our work to create a Canada where hearing health care is valued and protected. It is our hope that this work will further inspire individuals, organizations, governments, researchers, educators, advocacy organizations, health care providers and communities of interest to work together towards a national outcome.
This document is designed to stimulate a national dialogue, foster collaboration between stakeholders and crystalize a national effort to develop a bold, ambitious national hearing health strategy. We are confident it will lead to a meaningful national discussion and guide us towards common, national goals of improved hearing health, access to higher-quality hearing health care and better outcomes for Canadians with hearing loss.
About Our Alliance
The Hearing Health Alliance of Canada is united in advocating for:
- greater awareness of the impact of unmanaged hearing loss;
- decisive action to prevent hearing loss; and
- federal action now on a Canada-wide strategy for hearing health.
The Hearing Health Alliance of Canada comprises the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, Wavefront Centre for Communication Accessibility, Association of Hearing Instrument Practitioners of Ontario, Canadian Academy of Audiology, Canadian Hearing Instrument Practitioners Society, Cochlear Canada Inc., Hearing Industry Association of Canada and Speech-Language & Audiology Canada.
Raise the profile and awareness of hearing health and the impact of hearing loss.
Facilitate a unified national voice through
advocacy on issues of
common interest.
Play a leadership role and facilitate the creation of a national strategy for hearing health.
Advance policy,
legislative, regulatory
and consumer aspects
of common interest.
Coordinate proposals or submissions to the government on issues of common interest.
Press release · March 1, 2023
Decisive action needed for a Canada-wide hearing health strategy
Advocates, researchers and hearing health care professionals urge the Government of Canada to act first … and act now.
March 1, 2023 – Toronto ON: Canada is on the cusp of a potential public health crisis as the number of Canadians with some degree of hearing loss is expected to substantially increase as our population ages, and noise-induced hearing damage among young people rises. Swift and decisive action is therefore required by the government to create a bold, ambitious National Hearing Health Strategy.
To achieve this goal, the Hearing Health Alliance of Canada (HHAC) urges the Government of Canada to establish a multi-stakeholder committee to facilitate a national dialogue, foster stakeholder collaboration, and crystalize a pan-Canadian effort to develop a comprehensive National Hearing Health Strategy.
The HHAC’s call to action – Towards a National Hearing Health Strategy: An Agenda for Change – is backed by an abundance of research and statistics and is a low-cost initiative that has the potential to provide tremendous health and socio-economic benefits for all Canadians. It also aligns with a World Health Organization (WHO) resolution, which urges all member states, including Canada, to develop a national framework and recognize hearing loss as a public health issue and an essential component of universal health coverage.
Unless measures are taken in the near term, the costs of hearing loss will continue to rise with an enormous impact on the government-funded health care system, and the Canadian economy in terms of lost productivity, career, educational and training opportunities, employee earnings, and tax revenue. Meanwhile, the quality of life for Canadians with hearing loss will continue to decline.
To view our call to action, please visit: hearinghealthalliance.com
For additional information, please contact:
Daniel Tessier-Young, National Coordinator
Hearing Health Alliance of Canada