CORAL: Hearing Clinic & Therapy Program
In Oaxaca – one of the poorest states in Mexico – thousands of deaf and hard-of-hearing people are in need of low-cost rehabilitative services. Pre-screening and diagnostic services to identify hearing loss are almost non-existent outside Mexico City. Hearing tests, hearing aids and related services are available within private clinics in Oaxaca City but are extremely costly. With the average Oaxacan family earning less than US$20 per day, many people with hearing loss have no other choice than to go without sorely needed treatment.
Twenty-two years ago, Child Aid founded a low-income hearing clinic in Oaxaca, Mexico. This clinic, called CORAL, has since grown into a full-service speech and hearing center, the only resource of its kind for poor families in southern Mexico. Child Aid provides oversight and operating assistance to CORAL, bringing testing, therapy, clinical services, advocacy, family support and hearing aids to some of the poorest children in the country. CORAL staff work with families and schools to integrate hearing impaired children into their communities. Using a mobile testing unit, they also visit remote communities and screen infants and children who would otherwise have no access to hearing tests.
Ralph S. Millhone Memorial School for the Deaf: Operating under the philosophy that most deaf and hard-of-hearing children can learn to listen and speak with early intervention and ongoing training, the CORAL school provides intensive language therapy to children ages 2 to 14 years. Children are taught using the oral-auditory method where possible, an approach focused on developing listening and speaking skills, which enables them to communicate and thus participate with the world at large.
Harry Press Clinic: The CORAL clinic provides affordable hearing tests, hearing aids, aid repair, batteries and related health services to hearing-disabled children and adults who would otherwise go without rehabilitation. A full-service clinic and laboratory, CORAL offers diagnosis, treatment and ongoing support to the patient, using advanced equipment and technologies from the United States and Mexico.
Early Hearing Loss Detection Program: Launched in January 2004, this program is designed to identify and treat children with hearing loss beginning in infancy, rather than at 4 years as is the national average. Thousands of children have been screened through this outreach testing program. The program also works both with doctors, training them to recognize and screen for behaviors that would indicate a hearing disability in an infant and with parents, providing them with information on normal infant development and where to go if they suspect their baby has a hearing problem.
Social Work and Outreach Program: CORAL staff travel throughout Oaxaca City and its rural environs to identify and serve deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Once in the home, staff members educate the patient on using their aids, troubleshoot problems, provide resources and monitor progress.
Advocacy and Family Support Services: Having a deaf child can be devastating to a family. For this reason, CORAL offers monthly support discussions to parents of deaf children, featuring various professionals speaking on a range of topics related to managing their child’s disability. In an effort to break down barriers surrounding a child with a hearing disability, CORAL staff also advocates for teachers and school administrators to allow deaf and hard-of-hearing children into mainstream schools.
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