The mission of the Audiology Services is to promote the hearing health of the population of Trinidad and Tobago through the promotion of:
- Research on hearing and hearing loss in Trinidad and Tobago;
- Hearing conservation programmes for those at risk of permanent hearing loss from loud noise and other preventable causes
- Quality screening, diagnostic and rehabilitative services for persons with hearing and vestibular disorders in the public and private health services
- Educational programmes on hearing loss and its prevention
- Regulations and standards for hearing health practitioners
The School Health Programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Health which aims to extend coverage and improve the quality and efficiency of the existing School Health Programme implemented by the Community Health Services in each Regional Health Authority. The Project involves hearing and vision screening in primary schools throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
The School Health Programme ensures co-ordination of services to achieve auditory and visual screening for all primary school entrants and vision screening for all 4 th standard students, including the necessary follow-up.
A signed consent from parents/ guardians must precede the screening; notification of the screening outcome and possible follow-up care are given to them. These same results are co-ordinated, reported and stored for easy future access. The focus on this target group contributes to improvement and performance levels and eventual learning outcomes of students as a whole, since detected cases are seen and referred to the relevant institutions for appropriate intervention.
The screening is performed by a number of specially trained personnel who have also been trained to provide a number of other health screening tasks relevant to school-aged children. The School Health Programme is a registered training provider with the National Training Agency for Health Screening Level II CVQ which is the qualification used for employment of screeners.
The School Health Programme liaises with the Student Support Services of the Ministry of Education as it relates to students identified with vision and hearing deficits. The School Health Programme provides recommendations to schools on classroom management of students who are identified with specific deficits.
