New booklet to help people with hearing difficulties
Tuesday, October 10 2006
A new booklet for people with hearing difficulties has been launched by Scottish Borders Council and NHS Borders.
The booklet ‘Hearing difficulty?’ is the first of its kind in the Borders, and contains a wealth of information on services and support for the region’s growing population of people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It was put together with advice from a working group of people with hearing difficulties, social workers and health professionals.
It includes advice on managing deafness, contacts for advice on benefits, employment, housing and safety, lip reading and sign language classes, the causes of deafness and audiology checks, even a simple hearing test. It also details contacts for local and national organisations whose job is to advise and help people with hearing difficulties.
Launching the booklet at the Borders General Hospital, Melrose, on Friday [6 October], Michael Moore, MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, said, “One person in seven suffers some kind of hearing loss. One in three is over 60 years old, and for the over 80s that goes up to one in two. It’s very worrying.
In a population like ours in the Borders, it could mean that there are 14,000 people who have some difficulty with hearing that affects their lives. That is a very great number. I think if more people knew about that, they would be quite shocked. We have got to be sympathetic towards people who have hearing difficulties. We’ve got to understand and make extra effort.”
Mr Moore continued, “This booklet is a first, and a very important one. From start to finish it’s packed with information. May I commend this joint working between the Council’s Social Work Department and the health services.”
Andrew Lowe, SBC Director of Social Work, described the new booklet as “a very good opportunity to promote the issues of deafness”.
“Hearing loss is much more common than is generally believed. We all have to recognise that it is part of everyday life for thousands of people in the Borders. This booklet therefore has two objectives: to identify contacts and services for people with hearing difficulties and to raise awareness of deafness in the hearing population,” he said.
The ‘Hearing difficulty’ booklet will be available, free of charge, from health centres, local Social Work offices, libraries, and Council contact centres.
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