Deafness Forum Australia is the national independent citizen representative peak body for all Australians with hearing challenges, ear or balance disorders, and their families and supporters. Our purpose is to support Australians to live well in the community by making hearing health and wellbeing a national priority.
By Jane Lee, National Director, Hearing Health
When mental health professionals talk about holistic care, hearing loss isn’t always part of the conversation.
But for millions of Australians living with hearing loss—especially those in deaf, Deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing loss communities—mental health support that doesn’t include culturally safe, linguistically accessible care is not support at all.
Macro Impact Consulting is Here to Change That
This Deaf-led, hearing-aware social impact business is reframing how we talk about mental health, accessibility, and allyship across Deaf and hearing communities—and showing that inclusive care can’t happen in silos.
Our Work is Unique in this Space
At the heart of Macro Impact Consulting is a partnership between Sigrid, a Deaf access advocate, arts worker and creative, and Louise, a hearing mental health professional with a background in psychology and nursing.
We were really excited to find out that some students in the QIFT program are keen to work with Deaf and hard-of-hearing families. So when Leonie suggested we do an interview we jumped at the chance to talk more about MACRO.
(*Formerly QIFT, Leonie is now the director of Phoenix Family Therapy and Louise is an affiliate lecturer for the academy)
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