Resources taught to deaf and hard of hearing families

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., in collaboration with the CNMI Public School System’s Special Education, conducted a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Family Engagement Workshop at the Saipan World Resort on March 9, 2024. The event participants included parents, DHH children, family members and the professional who serves them.

The CHCC Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program is one of 59 programs across the United States and its jurisdictions that works to ensure that all infants are screened for hearing loss by 1 month of age, diagnosed for hearing loss 3 months of age and enrolled in Early Intervention by 6 months of age.

CHCC provided presentation and information on the variety of programs available at CHCC that provide services to children with special healthcare needs:

Newborn Screening Program

Early Childhood Screenings

Service Coordination

Family-to-Family Health Information Center (parent leadership trainings and peer-to-peer support groups)

Dr. Angie Mister, PSS audiologist, and Tricia Taitano, DHH instructor, conducted the team building activities and engaged family participants in the American Sign Language and ASL family bingo. To accommodate the communication needs and promote inclusion, Mystica Kaipat provided the sign language interpretation for the children who are deaf and/or with a severe to profound hearing loss.

The goal of the workshop was to provide guidance to develop and maintain active family engagement and leadership capacity for families of DHH children identified and served through the CHCC and PSS. Participants expressed how valuable the opportunity was for them and appreciated being able to connect with other parents and children. One parent stated, “My family and I are so happy to be here. I’m so happy to see other children who have the same type of hearing loss as my child.”

For more information on the CHCC-Children with Special Healthcare Programs and services, please contact Shiella Marie Deray at (670) 236-8709 or email at shiella.deray@chcc.health.