Thinking that you have normal hearing? Hearing crisis of 1 billion people.

Aging society: caring for the elders and “hearing” happiness

Hearing Impairment Scholarship: NT$10,000 for each recipient. Students of high school and college are encouraged to apply

Chou Szu Chi in Hearing Love invites the hearing-impaired people to participate in Deaflympics

WHO published a report in 2015, which stated that more than 1 billion people are in a hearing crisis due to poor daily habits. According to the statistics of Ministry of Health and Welfare, hearing-impaired population in Taiwan was over 120,000 by the end of 2014, which was ten times more than in 1992. In response to the 17^th World Hearing Day, PSA Charitable Foundation, which has been dedicated to charity since 2000, has continued to advocate for the hearing health to the general public and invited Chen Kuang Chao, Director of Cochlear Implant Center of Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, to share the special clinical cases of hearing impairment and teach people the methods of hearing protection. The Foundation also set up the new Hearing Impairment Scholarship for the high school and college students this year to award NT$10,000 for each recipient. The application is opened this July. Chou Szu Chi, the long-term hearing advocacy ambassador and professional baseball player, is invited to participate in the microfilm, Hearing Love. He invited people with hearing impairment to exercise with him to increase the confidence and release the stress, or even participate in Deaflympics to honor the country.

Secretary-general of PSA Charitable Foundation, Lin Long Sen believed we could tell the undeniable importance of hearing in life from how hearing impairment is valued among the international communities. He hopes to awaken people’s awareness of hearing health. The chairman of the board of the Foundation, Chen Chao Ju said that she empathized with the persons with hearing impairment and their families’ difficulties of taking care of them. Since the Foundation was established, it has always dedicated in the hearing care related issues and entered campuses and community locations to serve the children and elders. The Foundation also developed an APP, Noise Catcher, to promote awareness of ambient noise. 1,200 hearing devices were donated to the remote areas in China to benefit nearly a thousand children. Recently, the Foundation is dedicating in supporting outstanding hearing-impaired students in Taiwan and has set up a NT$10,000 Hearing Impairment Scholarship for high school and college students. The baseball star player, Chou Szu Chi has participated in the microfilm, Hearing Love, which contains three major themes: Listening, care for the hearing-impaired children; mother helps children with congenital hearing loss to learn to listen, speak, and explore the world. Seeing, Chou Szu Chi played the role of a young man who is concerned of the elders and disseminates the concepts of treating the elders with patience and speaking to them slowly and clearly. Loving, achieve the goal of “friendly treatment and communication without hindrance” for the hearing-impaired or degenerated elders through the interactions with parents, children, elders, and young people.

For the daily hearing protection, Chen Kuang Chao, Director of Cochlear Implant Center of Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, suggests to avoid long-term exposure to the high-noise environment. For example, do not stay in an environment with noise level over 91 dB more than two hours and if the volume was up to 100 dB, leave within 15 minutes. It is proved that the human hearing cannot tolerate the volume over 112 dB for more than one minute. Chen Kuang Chao also reminded the people who like to linger in the nightclubs to stay farther away from the speakers and leave the establishment immediately if the ears started to hurt. The sudden loud noises such as firecracker and target shooting might result in hearing loss with one single sound and the damage could overpass that of industrial noises. A single exposure to this kind of shocking noise could lead to a lifetime regret with irreversible hearing damage. Chen states that there is not yet a known cure or preventive measure for the most unexpected sudden sensorineural hearing loss. The causes include filterable virus and autoimmune disease. The severe cases of sudden sensorineural hearing loss can be treated with cochlear implant and it usually takes the patients six months to adapt to the implant. However, there was a special case of a 60-year-old woman who had been nearly deaf before the operation. She was back to normal communication with people right after the cochlear implanting except the senses of music and melody. The medical technology is still at the research stage and the medical team needs to develop and grow along with the patients. Chen revealed that many young people who required emergency care were having sudden sensorineural hearing loss after drinking and playing at the nightclubs and therefore he warned the young people not to overdo it and try not to stay up all night on the daily basis.

Hearing Impairment Scholarship of PSA Charitable Foundation accepts application from July 1^st to 31^st. Students, parents, and teachers can download the application form at https://www.psa.org.tw/scholarship02.htm or contact Director Wang at 02-8911-1311 for more information.