Early in January, John Greenwood and I visited Hertfordshire Hearing Advisory Service (HHAS) to assess a grant application for a Deaf Outreach Service.
The issue at hand:
The key message that John and I took away from our meeting with HHAS Chief Executive, Philip Linnegar, is that deafness is very isolating and deaf people find it difficult to access health information.
Philip talked of their recent Outreach project and how it was a valuable triage towards statutory and non-statutory medical services.
Who is HHAS?
HHAS
was established over 40 years ago, and is supported by local hospitals, generous donors and sponsors. The organisation offers help and advice to those with hearing difficulties and extends this support to their families who are also impacted by their conditions.
The charity provides a Hearing Support Service, Mobile Advisory service and Hearing Aider Service, all of which are under a Volunteer Support Service. Offerings include advice and information, battery replacement and exchange, cleaning and re-tubing of NHS hearing aids, demonstration of hearing aid use/equipment advice and employee development (Deaf Awareness Training for staff).
Where to from here?
The impact of the Support Services offered by HHAS are having on the Hertfordshire community was very clear and we hope they will be able to continue to help their community for years to come.
Paul Jackson
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