Ear and hearing health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2025

Access to culturally safe ear and hearing health specialist services is crucial for First Nations people to seek and receive timely diagnosis and treatment. The ear and hearing health workforce is diverse and often provides complementary services as part of a team (see Ear and hearing health and the ear health system in Australia).

While the workforce is critical to delivering ear and hearing health services, it faces challenges, including high staff turnover, competing demands from multiple programs and insufficient staff training. These challenges reduce the capacity of the ear and hearing health workforce, particularly in rural and remote communities (Siggins Miller 2017). There is also insufficient access to culturally appropriate services.

Outreach services (such as the Better Hearing, Better Listening program) is key in addressing disparities in the provision of services to communities in need. Outreach services face challenges such as limited transportation options, time constraints for the doctors, lack of available facilities, a burden of paperwork, and inconsistent funding. One important step toward advancing the effectiveness of outreach services would be improving the outreach participant network and establishing an ENT outreach national register (Tavener, Lithgow, 2025).

Data on the ear and hearing health workforce can indicate the availability of specialised ear health services.

This chapter covers the following information:

• audiologists (data tables 5.1a–d)
• ear, nose and throat specialists (data tables 5.2a–c)
• EarTrain workforce training – for primary health professionals (data tables 5.3a–d)
• Healthy Ears – Better Hearing, Better Listening outreach services (data tables 5.4a–c).

Data tables in Excel spreadsheet format can be accessed at the Data tab.