Senator Fuschillo Secures Funding For Long Island Jewish Hearing And Speech Center

Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. (8th Senate District) announced that he has secured $30,000 in state funding for the Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Hearing and Speech Center. The new funding will help offset the cost of expanding the hospital’s Cochlear Implant Program.

According to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the cochlear implant is a device surgically implanted under the skin to provide a sense of sound to a person with hearing loss. The implant does not simply amplify sound but it sends useful electronic impulses directly to the brain and compensates for damaged or non-working parts of the inner ear. The device can give a deaf person a useful auditory understanding of the environment and help them communicate.

In its third year of service,LIJ’s Cochlear Implant Program has implanted the hearing devices in over thirty five patients and is offering post-implant rehabilitation to an additional twenty nine recipients. Currently, the program has one implant device, the Nucleus 24 Channel Cochlear Implant, available for patients.

"Senator Fuschillo, over the past few years, has been extremely helpful to theLIJ Hearing and Speech Center and has always been very sensitive to the needs of people with communication disorders. With an ability to access assistance through funding programs, Senator Fuschillo has been able to help these patients," stated Lynn Spivak, Ph.D., the Center’s Director.

"The new funding will help the Cochlear Implant Program purchase the equipment necessary to enhance the program," said Senator Fuschillo. "This enhancement will allow the program to further its mission of enabling individuals with hearing loss to hear and also to offer rehabilitative services to more Long Islanders."

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