In honour of Tinnitus Awareness Week 2024, Tinnitus Éire, Global Brain Health Institute and PPI Ignite Trinity College Dublin organised a Research Talks by Prof. Iracema Leroi, geriatric psychiatrist and Prof. Sven Vanneste, renowned tinnitus expert and launching the video documentary "Our Tinnitus Story" - a collective narrative of voices from diverse professionals in the tinnitus field in Ireland, including community members with lived experience.
Prof. Leroi is a Geriatric Psychiatrist leading the “Mind and Movement” clinic at St. James’ Hospital. She is also leading an applied clinical research program called SENSE-COG investigating the link between hearing, vision and cognition in dementia. Prof. Leroi is also a passionate champion of the Patient Public Involvement Initiative in research in the dementia field, and through this initiative at the Global Brain Health Institute she has graciously come forward to support Tinnitus Awareness Week 2024. In this talk, Prof. Leroi shares her professional experience with PPI - Patient Public Involvement in Research.
Prof. Vanneste is one of world’s top 3 tinnitus researchers. Over the last 15 years, Prof. Vanneste has contributed invaluable knowledge of how the brain is involved in generating tinnitus and the role of hearing loss as a contributing factor. He is an expert in different neuromodulation techniques such as electrical and magnetic stimulation for the treatment of tinnitus and is a co-founder of a neuromodulation clinic in Belgium to treat different brain health conditions, including tinnitus. In this talk, Prof. Vanneste gives a summary of his and others’ research in tinnitus and a flavour of how the brain may be involved in tinnitus.
Tinnitus (continuous ringing in the ear) is a debilitating disorder that affects about 10% of the population and up to 30% of older adults. If tinnitus is this prevalent, then why are we not talking about it? How can we make people aware about how difficult life with tinnitus can be? What do we need to give tinnitus a voice and advocate for at a national level? In this documentary, we bring together members of the tinnitus community, musicians and researchers. During a co-creative song writing workshop on the lived experience of tinnitus, diverse professionals shed their labels and came together as people with beating hearts. They talked about their experience with tinnitus and what the field needs to push towards better treatment and care for nearly 15% of the world's population. "Our tinnitus story" is a collective narrative of voices from diverse members in the tinnitus field. This is our story. If this is your story too, please get in touch with us through tinnitus.eire@gmail.com.