HearingTracker
Professional org · Public health & policy← The news desk

✦ The Dispatch

Allied Health Professions Australia expresses ‘heartfelt support’ for Prac Payments lobbyist Dr Helen Haines

A dispatch from Hearing Practitioner Australia — filed

Group of around 20 people standing outdoors at a press conference beside a government building, with a speaker at a microphone podium and camera crews in the foreground.
✦ PlateGroup of around 20 people standing outdoors at a press conference beside a government building, with a speaker at a microphone podium and camera crews in the foreground.

Dr Helen Haines, third from the left in a light blue jacket, at a press conference in February 2026 on Prac Payments. AHPA CEO Bronwyn Morris-Donovan is speaking and Senator David Pocock is second from right. Image: AHPA, provided to HPA for a Prac Payments story in July 2026....

Continue reading at Hearing Practitioner Australia

✦ The floor

Discussion

Signed responses from readers of the wire.

✦ Clinical Takeaway ✦

No actionable change to clinical practice; this is an Australian allied health workforce advocacy and policy story with no direct clinical implications.

✦ Why It Matters ✦

Allied health workforce funding campaigns—like Prac Payments—can shape how future audiologists and other health professionals are trained and paid, with downstream effects on clinic staffing pipelines across Australia.

✦ Key Points ✦
  1. 01Allied Health Professions Australia (AHPA) publicly expressed support for Dr Helen Haines at a February 2026 press conference.
  2. 02Dr Haines is a lobbyist for Prac Payments, a campaign focused on compensation for allied health students on clinical placement.
  3. 03AHPA CEO Bronwyn Morris-Donovan and Senator David Pocock also attended the press conference.
  4. 04The event signals growing cross-sector political momentum behind allied health student payment reform in Australia.
✦ Related stories ✦
PU
PubMed·Journal article·Public health & policy·

Hearing loss, hearing-aid use, and mortality risk: individual participant data meta-analysis of population-based studies from Australia, Iceland, and the USA and a replication study from Norway

This meta-analysis provides the strongest population-level evidence to date that hearing loss is associated with increased mortality and that hearing-aid use may attenuate that risk — audiologists should use this evidence when counselling patients on uptake.

PU
PubMed·Journal article·Public health & policy·

Personal listening device usage, leisure noise exposure, hearing protection usage and hearing at standard frequencies: a longitudinal study from child/adolescence to young adulthood

Audiologists working with adolescents and young adults should monitor noise exposure habits longitudinally; if this study confirms hearing threshold shifts tied to device use, it strengthens counselling on safe listening — but clinical guidance changes should await full results...

PU
PubMed·Journal article·Public health & policy·

Consumer preferences for hearing health care information and services as described by older adults surveyed in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States

Findings from this cross-national survey may highlight patient-reported barriers and communication preferences that audiologists can use to improve outreach and service delivery, but practice changes should await review of the full results and their applicability to local...