Help for Hearing Impairment

maximinimim

Hi everyone, been a member of this site for awhile now and it is great to see this thread. I have been hard of hearing for a long time but only recently been fitted with two hearing aids and I have to be honest, I never knew the world was so noisy! Finding it difficult to adapt to the hearing world again but I know that this will take time. I was just wondering if I could get some advice. I work full time but am having difficulties with the noise in my office. Work has been great and have supplied some equipment to help but still having problems. I am finding things difficult and I have suffered from depression before and I can feel this returning. I am also finding the financial outlay, in my personal life for things like a loopset for my mobile, becoming quite huge. I am feeling quite lost about how to move forward and maintain a 'normal' life for want of a better phrase. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

altocumulus

maximinimim wrote: »

Hi everyone, been a member of this site for awhile now and it is great to see this thread. I have been hard of hearing for a long time but only recently been fitted with two hearing aids and I have to be honest, I never knew the world was so noisy! Finding it difficult to adapt to the hearing world again but I know that this will take time. I was just wondering if I could get some advice. I work full time but am having difficulties with the noise in my office. Work has been great and have supplied some equipment to help but still having problems. I am finding things difficult and I have suffered from depression before and I can feel this returning. I am also finding the financial outlay, in my personal life for things like a loopset for my mobile, becoming quite huge. I am feeling quite lost about how to move forward and maintain a 'normal' life for want of a better phrase. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

If you are having difficulties at work - ask your manager for a Work Place Assessment (under the Access to Work Scheme) - that is your right and it need not cost your employer a penny. SOme things identified for work can also be used at home...

On the home front, approach your local Social Services, or even better a local Deaf Society - the latter will often loan you many bits of equipment
you ask for....

Are your hearing aids programmable, if so you can get the audiologist to give you a program setting to reduce background noise for use in the office - that setting might also be more useful on the telephone.....

rosieben

hi Max :hello:

I can understand what you're going through, I lost my hearing very suddenly a few years ago and had lots of difficulties at work; ended up with depression and stress and because of that and other health problems I can't work now, so I find it impossible to buy equipment.

Take all the advice you can (I'm sure you'll get loads more on this thread). Can you ask Audiology if there's a hearing advisor in your area and if so ask for an appointment? sadly we didn't have one here but I suspect that's the person who would have helped me out initially. As it was I was just left to find out for myself about equipment etc., luckily I was earning good money so I was able to afford loops etc, but these things don't last forever!

I've just contacted Social services to see if I can get help with replacement loops etc for home, so maybe that's another avenue to explore?

hth and hope you'll be a regular here

allydowd

maximinimim wrote: »

I am feeling quite lost about how to move forward and maintain a 'normal' life for want of a better phrase. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you let us know what town/county you're in I can give you details of a local support group.

maximinimim

Thanks allydowd - and everyone else - I live in Bournemouth.
I am going back to work tomorrow after a week's holiday, so will talk to my manager about a work place assessment.

tattoed_bum

hi everyone , this might not be the right place to ask this please move if not .

but my six yr old son is severly deaf in both ears and i coming on great with hearing aids ,but he is desperate to learn to swim ,the problem being his hearing is way below speech level when his aids are out so comunnication can be a struggle .

i would love him to go to swimming lessons but dont know how to go about the communication problem.
and trying to teach him myself in a public pool is virtually impossible

does anyone know how to get around this also how did you all learn to swim

my dh is also severly deaf but as he lost his hearing about 10yrs ago through meningitis it is a real struggle for even him to teach him

allydowd

tattoed_bum wrote: »

but my six yr old son is severly deaf in both ears and i coming on great with hearing aids ,but he is desperate to learn to swim ,the problem being his hearing is way below speech level when his aids are out so comunnication can be a struggle .

i would love him to go to swimming lessons but dont know how to go about the communication problem.

I would suggest you contact the British Deaf Sports Council for advice. Or else someone from UK Deaf Sport

tattoed_bum

thanks for that i had no idea where to start , i dont think he will be make the Olympics though lol but as long as he can learn to swim he will be chuffed to beans

Savvy_Sue

I know Connevans make little covers for hearing aids. I don't know if they're waterproof enough to swim in (probably not!), but a) you could ask and b) you could keep them in mind for slightly less wet activities.

Also I would seriously consider private swimming lessons if that's at all possible, perhaps if you could find a teacher willing to have you and your DS in the pool together but giving 1:1 attention she could teach by demonstration. After all, swimming lessons can start very young, before a child can understand what is being said very well IMO.

Also worth asking at school: I believe swimming has to be included in the curriculum at some point in primary school, so what plans do the school have for that stage?

BTW, I think it's an excellent idea that he SHOULD learn to swim, after all if he fails to hear a warning shouted that he's heading for water and he ends up in it, he needs to know how to get out!

rosieben

hi, tattoed bum, nothing to add to the good advice here except to say I agree its important that all kids learn to swim.

A change of subject, subtitling on DVDs; I've had a lot of frustration with Amazon over the years because they rarely list whether a DVD has subtitles or not. Someone recommended this website and its been quite useful; I've never bought from them but check subtitles and then buy wherever its cheapest (usually amazon, used marketplace)

hope its helpful for someone