Health briefing

Today's other stories in brief

Hearing screening project launched

A NATIONAL screening project to be launched today will provide 1,000 free hearing checks nationally to people over 40 years of age.

The project aims to raise awareness of the prevalence and impact of acquired hearing loss and to encourage those suffering from it to seek support.

The organisation behind the scheme, Deaf Hear, says people with a significant hearing loss wait on average 10 years before seeking help and support. For more information, visit www.deafhear.ie.

Children at centre of pilot domestic violence service

THE FIRST dedicated service for child victims of domestic violence in Ireland has been launched in Co Mayo.

The Mayo Children’s Initiative (MCI) in Castlebar is funded exclusively by Atlantic Philanthropies, the foundation set up by Irish-American billionaire Chuck Feeney. Atlantic Philanthropies has backed several projects aimed at helping children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This service is aimed at providing a child-centred approach to domestic violence, recognising that support services are often targeted at women who are the victims of domestic abuse and not children.

The initiative has already been working in Erris, north Mayo, where it is delivering the Protective Behaviours Programme, which is a practical approach to personal safety and wellbeing.

Many children who live in violent households do not regard it as abnormal as they know no better, and the aim of the Protective Behaviours Programme is to make children aware of the reality of domestic violence.

Helen Mortimer, manager of MCI, said that when children talk about the anxiety, fear and dread they endure when violence is part of their lives, it belies any notion that it goes unnoticed or that mothers can protect their children from its impact. “If we are to provide children with the strategies to keep themselves safe, or to help them cope with the violence they are living with, we must first listen to them,” she said.

It is hoped that MCI, which will be a referral service, will be rolled out across the State if the pilot programme proves successful.

Singing gives stroke victims the chance to speak again

US SCIENTISTS have restored speech to stroke victims by getting them to sing words instead of speaking them, a leading neurologist said.

Gottfried Schlaug, an associate professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, showed a video of a patient with a stroke lesion on the left side of the brain who was asked to recite the words of a birthday song. The patient could not comply, and merely repeated the letters N and O. But when Mr Schlaug asked him to sing the song while someone held the patient’s left hand and tapped it rhythmically, the words, “Happy birthday to you”, came out clearly.

“This patient has meaningless utterances when we ask him to say the words but as soon as we asked him to sing, he was able to speak the words,” Mr Schlaug told reporters at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Another patient was taught to say, “I am thirsty”, by singing, while another who had tried various therapies for several years to try to regain the power of speech was taught to say his address.

Images of the brains of patients with stroke lesions on the left side – which is typically used more for speech – show “functional and structural changes” on the right side after they have undergone this form of therapy through song, called Music Intonation Therapy (MIT).

Although medical literature has documented the phenomenon of people who are unable to speak being able to utter words when singing, Mr Schlaug was the first to run a randomised clinical trial of MIT, with a view to gaining acceptance of the therapy in the medical field.