Support for hard of hearing Rosie

  • Date: 03/03/2021

Rosie* was referred to Revival after being discharged from hospital. She had difficulties hearing, so rather than doing the usual telephone assessment, we arranged a home visit.

On arrival, we found that Rosie had a number of issues caused by her hearing loss and we sometimes had to write questions down for her as she was really struggling to hear.

She told us that although she had hearing aids, these hadn’t been working since the national lockdown. This had left her unable to hear people on the phone and struggling to watch TV, which she’d had to turn up to full volume leading to complaints from her neighbours.

Not being able to hear had also left her feeling isolated and alone, and the ongoing lockdown meant she couldn’t see her friends face to face. All this was having an impact on her mental health and quality of life.

During the assessment, Revival also found that her smoke alarms were no longer working. With Rosie’s consent, we made a referral to Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service. They came out and did a full fire risk check, where they replaced the defective smoke alarms with two new ones and provided her with a vibrating pillow and a strobe light in her bedroom so she’d be woken up if there's fire or smoke is detected, without relying on her hearing the alarms.

In addition, we referred her to a well-known Optician chain who were also still doing home visits during COVID and they were able to get her hearing aids working again. By her own admission, she didn’t like to wear them all of the time so we helped her purchase cordless headphones that could be linked to the TV. Rosie can now watch her favourite shows without annoying her neighbours. 

Revival also mentioned to Rosie about a facility called Typetalk- a text to voice and voice to text facility she could use with her landline. It's a free service for people with hearing impairments, with calls charged at usual standard rates. For Rosie, she told us this has “re-opened my world again” as she was once again able “to talk to my friends and family without my irritating hearing aids getting in the way.”

We believe that nothing should stop you from loving the home you’re in. If you, or someone you know, could benefit from any of the services mentioned, get in touch with our team today on 0333 014 3389 or email hello@thisisrevival.org.uk and let Revival help bring your home to life again.