How Special Olympics British Columbia Helps Athletes during World Hearing Day

Bailey Macklem is a health coordinator with Special Olympics British Columbia. Martine Schlagintweit—one of the volunteer clinical directors that Bailey helps out as part of her job—uses her skills as an audiologist to screen the ears of athletes during Healthy Hearing events.

Like most Healthy Athletes events, Healthy Hearing has two main benefits: helping the athletes themselves and collecting valuable data on the healthcare needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Martine said all athlete’s health results are written down and sent to Bailey. If an athlete has a caregiver with them during their checkup, that person will also get the info on any potential issues and the recommended treatment. 

Bailey then follows up with those clinics, to ensure Special Olympics British Columbia athletes get the auditory care they need.

As mentioned in other news stories and research papers published by Special Olympics, Healthy Athletes programs have found people with intellectual and development disorders (IDD) are more likely to have issues with their health than most people in Canada.  This is often caused by a lack of social and medical support within different Canadian institutions—including medical institutions like hospitals or clinics—but in some cases extra health problems can be caused by a person’s disability itself.

Severe earwax and middle ear fluid buildup is something Martine said affects many of the athletes she sees during Healthy Hearing programs, sometimes to the point of causing hearing loss. She noticed that people with Down syndrome are particularly more likely to have problems with ear wax buildup, or more unusually, fluids trapped in the middle ear space (a sinus-like cavity behind your eardrum). People with Down syndrome and other developmental disabilities often have different bone structure in their faces, which Martine said could lead to their ears not being able to automatically drain themselves properly. 

Another major cause of ear problems in athletes, Martine said, is a lack of support caused by communication barriers. For example, someone may have a clogged ear because they never learned how to clean it efficiently, or may be unable to ask for professional help. 

“Or,” she added, “[in the case of] an insidious gradual onset, even the general population doesn’t realize when they have a plugged ear.”

Bailey supported what Martine said, based on the Healthy Hearing records she looked at. On top of the communication issues with people who are unable to express their healthcare needs, Bailey said there are also a lot of athletes who do not think they need a regular checkup.

She recalled one athlete who had “significant hearing loss” that was discovered during a Healthy Athletes event. 

“It would’ve been very painful if it got worse,” Bailey added, “but their caregiver was very involved.” Speaking generally, she said, “If the pain is gradual enough, it prevents [people with IDD] from vocalizing or seeking care, if they have skills to do that in the first place.”

Most of the conditions found during Healthy Hearing events are preventable, according to Martine who recommends people get their ears cleaned by an audiologist instead of doing it themselves. While at-home ear cleaning kits exist, Martine said they are “not very successful,” and come with the risk of making things worse. She added that many people with IDD have unusually shaped ear canals (due to the bone structure differences she mentioned earlier), they really should find a medical practitioner who can help their body effectively. For people who do not have access to an audiologist like herself, Martine recommended they go to their general practitioner/family doctor for help getting their ears cleaned. And for people who do not have a family doctor either, Martine recommended going to a walk-in clinic.