The Hidden Disability

The Rotary Club of Senlac was pleased to welcome Mark Dimmock, from the charity, East Sussex Hearing, to their speaker meeting.

Mark highlighted the causes and differences between loss of hearing, and the absence of hearing from birth. There are some 100,000 people with hearing impairment throughout East Sussex but many are helped through adaptive equipment, sign language and lip reading. The current forecast is that one in three will suffer from hearing loss in the future, due to increased exposure to excessive noise, that includes use of headphones and loud music.

The obvious difficulty, caused from not hearing, is isolation, but in turn it can result in mental health issues. A clear link to dementia has been established.

East Sussex Hearing supports using, fitting, and maintaining hearing aids. Many users are elderly and struggle with dexterity, and the technology involved. A pair of aids costs in the order of £5000, which is a huge investment from the NHS; it is vital that the aids are used, rather than stay in a drawer!

Adaptive aids include induction loops, telephones, doorbells, and smoke alarms. Currently, equipment is funded by the local council and installed by the charity.

The long-term goal of East Sussex Hearing is to equip a mobile clinic, The Hearing Hopper. This will provide an audiologist and all the support equipment and technology to deliver a service to the outlying villages in the county. The charity hopes to establish its own micro suction unit to address one of the most common causes of hearing loss; wax build up: the most damaging action is to poke around with a cotton bud because it compacts the wax and causes a greater problem!

East Sussex Hearing is available in Bexhill, St Leonards on Sea, Hastings, Fairlight, Pett, Three Oaks, Rye

www.eschrc.org 01323 7225058 mail@eschrc.org