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Project Name: Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention (H61)
Applicant Title: HEALTH RESEARCH, INC.
Abstract Text: Address: New York State Department of Health, Division of Family Health, Corning Tower, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12237 Project Director Name: Joanne Gerber Contact Phone Numbers: xxx-xxx-xxxx Email Address: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xx Website Address, if applicable: https://tinyurl.com/bdeabja8 Requested grant program funds: $1,175,000 (5 years) Background: New York State (NYS) has the 4th highest number of annual live births in the U.S. (211,546 in 2021). Of these infants, 234 were successfully identified as Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH) by the Bureau of Perinatal Reproductive and Sexual Health’s (BPRASH) New York Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program (NY EHDI). However, losses to follow-up for newborns who failed their initial hearing screening indicate that there is an unknown number lost to follow-up. In addition, the NY EHDI has not previously tracked screenings performed through 3 years of age or examined language acquisition. For the current project, staff will engage stakeholders across the statewide system of care to ensure that NYS achieves the 1-3-6 goals of screening by 1 month of age, diagnosis by 3 months of age, early intervention by 6 months of age, improvement of language acquisition outcomes and increasing hearing screening capacity up to 3 years of age. Goals: The proposed project will support the following activities in four key areas: 1) engage stakeholders to improve language acquisition outcomes for children who are DHH; 2) engage, educate, and train healthcare professionals and service providers; 3) engage stakeholders to expand hearing screening up to age 3; 4) engage, collaborate with statewide programs and partners to provide family-to family support services, and engage families with children who are DHH. NY EHDI’s goal is to achieve the 7 objectives of the grant below: 1. Strengthen infrastructure to coordinate services across the statewide EHDI system for DHH children to improve language acquisition outcomes. 2. Provide opportunities for family engagement in family-to-family supports and services across the EHDI system. 3. Maintain at least 95 percent screening rate each year the number of infants that completed a newborn hearing screening no later than 1 month of age. 4. Increase by 10 percent from baseline the number of infants that completed a diagnostic audiological evaluation no later than 3 months of age. 5. Increase by 15 percent from baseline the number of infants identified to be DHH that are enrolled in Early Intervention services no later than 6 months of age. 6. Expand hearing screening, diagnosis, and connection of services for young children up to age 3 and establish baseline rates. 7. Continuously engage, educate, and train health professionals and other service providers on key aspects of the EHDI program, with a special focus on those from underserved communities. Methodology: The NY EHDI will engage statewide programs and the EHDI Advisory Group comprised of clinical providers, subject experts and families with lived experience, to guide NYSDOH on the goals and objectives. Activities such as creating a language acquisition infrastructure, with the assistance of an expanded stakeholder workgroup, for young children who are DHH including providing recommendations and guidelines for best practices; developing a plan to increase hearing screening up to age 3 by establishing a planning committee and conducting a provider pilot program to enhance screening up to 3 years of age; and engaging stakeholders to improve NY EHDI deliverables to better support children who DHH and their families across NY. NY EHDI will guide, review all activities, and evaluate data to identify positive outcomes and collaborove NY EHDI deliverables to better support children who DHH and their families across NY. NY EHDI will guide, review all activities, and evaluate data to identify positive outcomes and collaborate with partners to support the proposed objectives of the grant.