Ear and hearing health is vital for overall health and quality of life. Ear disease and associated hearing loss can have long-lasting impacts on education, wellbeing and employment.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are more likely than non-Indigenous children to experience ear and hearing problems. A number of factors contribute towards the poorer ear and hearing health of Indigenous children, including lack of access to health services, household overcrowding and second-hand smoke exposure.

Over the last decade, the Australian Government has funded the Northern Territory Government to deliver hearing health outreach services to Indigenous children and young people aged under 21 in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory Remote Aboriginal Investment Hearing Health Program provides outreach audiology, ear, nose and throat (ENT) and Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) services.

This report presents new data for the Hearing Health Program for 2018. It focuses on services provided between July 2012 and December 2018 to produce time trends and track children and young people as they move through the program. Long-term analyses from 2007 to 2018 are also included. Throughout this report, you will find links to the supplementary tables related to the figures presented. Supplementary tables are available at the AIHW website.