Shepherd Centre opens facility for hearing-impaired children at Oran Park

Accessing specialist care will be easier for Macarthur families after an established treatment centre for children with hearing loss opened its doors.

Accessing specialist care will be easier for Macarthur families after the Shepherd Centre opened its facility in Oran Park to help children with hearing loss.

The facility will house five therapy rooms, a world standard audiology booth used for cochlear implant testing and specially designed clinical and education areas.

The new facility means families in the area won’t have to travel as far to get the help needed for their children.

Natalia Scopelliti was born on March 29 last year and when her parents took her for the newborn hearing tests, she failed.

After more extensive tests at Randwick Hospital, it was discovered she had significant hearing loss.

For mum Stephanie Scopelliti it was a complete shock.

Natalia Scopelliti was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss as a baby and will be one of the first patients at the new Shepherd Centre at Oran Park.

“My husband and I were in disbelief,” she said.

“It was really overwhelming trying to figure out what exactly that meant.

“I had someone from the Shepherd Centre call and we met them and they actually explained what we needed and wanted to know.”

Natalia was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss, meaning she is almost completely profoundly deaf in her left ear.

“She does have some hearing without the aids, but obviously the aids improve the clarity so much for her,” Ms Scopelliti said.

Now almost a year old, Natalia has been receiving specialist treatment at the Shepherd Centre, but out at Casula which is at least a 30-minute drive for the Spring Farm family.

“Having something so close, like less than 10 minutes, makes things so much easier,” Ms Scopelliti said.

“It’s less stress for me and also makes it easier for her.”

Natalia Scopelliti, with her mum Stephanie.

Southwest Sydney is the fastest growing region of NSW, and by 2040 over 550,000 people will call the area home, while one in 1000 children will be diagnosed with some form of hearing loss.

The Shepherd Centre chief executive officer Jim Hungerford said only about half of the children in Sydney with hearing loss were getting the specialist treatment they need.

“One of the areas where it’s less than half is southwest Sydney, simply because the area has been growing so rapidly and there is no locally-based service,” he said.

“We made a decision that we needed to establish a centre to provide easy access for all the families.”

Mr Hungerford said hearing loss could mean many impacts, depending on the child.

“Children with hearing loss need to get their support absolutely as early as possible in their life because otherwise if their brains don‘t get the right stimulation,” he said.

“The nature of the hearing device and the therapies would depend on the severity of the hearing loss so it would have to be tailored to them.”

The clinic was opened at Oran Park on Monday and the Macarthur centre is being built next door which will open next year.

Overall, the project is costing more than $5 million.

“At the moment, we are helping 15 children and we are expecting that to grow through the year,” Mr Hungerford said.

The new centre has also created seven jobs alongside 10 local volunteer positions to engage with the programs.

In late 2020, the NSW Government through the South Western Sydney Local Health District committed $2.5 million dollars to help The Shepherd Centre establish the site, to ensure that families in the region have access to hearing services.

This funding accompanies the philanthropic donations from local businesses including Sargeants Pies.

The Oran Park facility is at level 1, 90 Podium Way Oran Park and opens from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday.