WA experts and the World Health Organisation are calling for greater awareness towards efforts to circumvent preventable hearing loss, as part of World Hearing Day 2026.

In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are disproportionately affected by preventable conditions linked to long-term hearing loss—particularly otitis media, a middle-ear infection characterised by fluid build-up. While both preventable and treatable, untreated cases can result in lasting hearing impairment and delayed speech development.

Head of Ear and Hearing Health at the Kids Research Institute Australia Professor Chris Brennan-Jones warns untreated otitis media holds children back.

“Kids start behind and then stay behind unless its resolved early,” he says.

Paediatric audiologist Claire Lariviere says it’s not an exaggeration to link the condition with very bad social outcomes.

“If their hearing loss had been identified early enough, and they’d gotten the right education and support, would they have ended up on those paths towards crime?”

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, otitis media disproportionately affects Indigenous communities, with long-term consequences including school disengagement, employment difficulties, social isolation and an increased likelihood to interactions with the justice system. The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the number of Indigenous Australians in custody has increased over the last quarter, with 37 per cent of persons in custody being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status. Advocates say this highlights the urgency of addressing the pipeline between compromised health outcomes and justice system involvement.

Professor Stuart Kinner is from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

“Our criminal justice system is largely filled with those who haven’t had their needs met adequately in the community,” he says.

“People with significant and unaddressed health problems end up in our criminal justice system because our systems in the community are not sufficiently resourced to address those needs.”

Professor Stuart Kinner

Co-founder of the Earbus Foundation Paul Higginbotham established the service in 2013 to prevent “children’s futures from falling through the cracks.”

“No one had seriously, systematically tackled otitis media until we put Earbus on the road,” he says.

“Government, top-down approaches don’t work–the only way to see the prevalence of the disease come under control is with a bottom-up approach, working with community and earning their trust to guide solutions that work for them. We can fix this,” Mr Higginbotham says.

Dr Carol Dowling, a Badimia (Yamatji) woman and professor at Curtin Centre for Aboriginal Studies, says she was inspired to co-found the Earbus Foundation alongside Mr Higginbotham after witnessing the difficulties experienced by her foster son, who was struggling with otitis media.

“A lot of our mob believe otitis media is genetic, that it is a part of being Aboriginal but its not, its preventable,” she says.

“We need to have services like Earbus to go out there and form relationships with community to help prevent and resolve this.”

Professor Kinner says smart investments can make a huge difference.

“Governments need to invest at a level proportionate to need. Rates and the effects of otitis media is one important instance of the broader message that our decision makers need to understand—to prioritise investing upstream in organisations who provide targeted critical services in our communities.”