A Holistic Perspective for Hearing Loss
Dr. Ivette Cejas is the first licensed psychologist to join the American Cochlear Implant Alliance Board of Directors.
The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Ivette Cejas, Ph.D., was recently honored by being selected for the American Cochlear Implant Alliance (ACIA) Board of Directors.
A professor in the Miller School’s Division of Audiology and director of Family Support Services for UHealth—the University of Miami Health System’s Children’s Hearing Program, Dr. Cejas is the first Hispanic and the first licensed psychologist to join the ACIA board.
“This is terrific recognition of Dr. Cejas and her accomplishments in the field of psychology and hearing loss in children. She is internationally recognized in the field while among only a handful of real experts in family dynamics of childhood hearing loss and deafness,” said Fred Telischi, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology at the Miller School.
Hearing Loss and Cochlear Implantation
Dr. Cejas’s clinical work and research focuses on the psychological dimensions of pediatric cochlear implantation. She counsels families who have just learned that their newborn has hearing loss, devises ways to encourage pediatric patients to consistently use their devices and works with patients with co-morbid conditions like ADHD and autism.
“I’m in a space where the majority of the people are coming for medical intervention, but they also want their child to develop listening and spoken language skills. So I’m the person in the middle, trying to make sure they’re realistic and they understand what that looks like while respecting their family choices, which sometimes is challenging,” she said.
Dr. Cejas believes that care involves the whole patient and their family. It’s a team effort.
“As the director of the Family Support Team of the Children’s Hearing Program, I always say these challenges are going to come up, and that’s why we have this multidisciplinary team,” she said. “We’re here to support your journey along the way, because it’s not just that diagnosis and intervention piece. There are also a lot of transitions and challenges. I’m able to navigate some of that with families, but we also have this wonderful support team that can talk about education, talk about social work, talk about all these other areas that we know come up for families.”
Early Intervention in Hearing Loss
Dr. Cejas has been involved with the ACIA for some time before her selection to the board. She and Dr. Telischi organized the scientific component and served as local hosts for the 2019 international ACIA conference.
The organization has also funded several of her research projects. One examined long-term outcomes for pediatric cochlear implant patients. Another assessed the societal and lifetime costs experienced by patients with severe to profound hearing loss and cost savings of cochlear implants.
Dr. Cejas’s other recent work demonstrates the importance of early intervention in hearing loss. Individuals who get cochlear implants early can have reading and writing skills that are on par with their hearing peers. That leads to greater educational attainment, better career options and higher income.
During her time on the board, Dr. Cejas hopes to make such data more visible to ACIA members, along with data about how to achieve timely cochlear implantation.
“I’m hoping to bring up those discussions and say, ‘What are we finally going to do about it?’ Because we can show that it’s not just speech and language that gets affected. It really is all areas of development,” she said.
Dr. Cejas noted the fact that her very selection to the board demonstrates the ACIA’s commitment to a multidisciplinary approach to hearing loss and cochlear implantation.
“I love to see the growth in that kind of open door that this organization has had in including social work, education, psychology and patient navigation,” she said. “I’ve seen that change over the last few years, so I’m excited to continue pushing that forward so other individuals like myself can feel like they can come to these conferences and be part of what we know this organization can do in terms of the medical and audiological care patients are receiving.”
Tags: audiology, Children's Hearing Program, cochlear implants, Dr. Fred Telischi, Dr. Ivette Cejas, hearing, hearing loss