Hearing Helpers

Where the inspiration came from

I first found out about the hearing aid service when I lived in Farnborough, where I attended a Church in Camberley in the Guildford Diocese. They investigated starting what was called Hearing Champions and I was one of the volunteers to be trained by the audiology department at The Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford. 

When I moved to my new home, it was immediately obvious that there was a great need for the same service here in my new parish and the difficulties for older users especially to get to a nearby village or the hospital audiology departments, with limited public transport, was apparent. 

Getting started

I went to my diocese, Portsmouth to explain what had been done before in Guildford, and with their blessing on the project, spoke to leadership about the service and after investigating the rules I eventually got the idea agreed by the church council.  I decided to call it ‘Hearing Helpers’.  My work really started there.

I also contacted a local optician with an audiology department who was very interested in the possibility of the service we could offer. They put me in touch with their head office who now supply us with tubes, domes and batteries again free of charge, so we help any NHS patients who use the local hospital or the opticians.

I gathered a group of six volunteers including myself and then contacted the Audiology Department of one of the hospitals, The Queen Alexandra Portsmouth and spoke at length to the head of the department about getting the team trained and supplied with all we needed.  Once this was agreed we started our journey.

The training consisted of a few hours, at our church, with hearing aids, batteries and tubes and we were shown how to refit domes, tubes and batteries and to clean the hearing aids. Sometimes this simple procedure can make all the difference to someone’s life. We are very aware of the impact of hearing loss and do all we can to increase the accessibility of all our services and events to those who need them. We were given hearing aids to constantly practise on and keep up our skills.

Practicalities

We put together a kit in a small toolbox, where we keep the necessary supplies (domes, tubes and batteries for all sizes) which are all sent by the various audiology departments directly to us, free of charge.  We have a few small tools, which the trainers showed us we needed, but nothing too technical. We also maintain a diary of who comes and what we do and what we supply them with.

Our service is free to everyone and as we plan them during a morning coffee session and after our midweek service, always includes a drink and a biscuit. We offer 2 sessions a month, both of which run for an hour.  We work in pairs and there is always a queue at the beginning of the session.  We have increased the number who work on the team, and work with a rota system.

Impact

It is truly a wonderful, rewarding ministry to get involved in. We have a lot of returning clients, and some of them have become part of our regular events and joined in our worshipping community.  Many come on recommendation of others, and this has proved to be a great opportunity to provide a very valuable service to the community and introduce them to the love of God. I believe this service shows God's love to all those who attend our sessions.  If they want to talk, we listen.  We never rush people away.  In some instances, we have an extra person on duty who could take a person off for a coffee or just listen to them.

It's caring for everyone young or old but in our case it's mostly older people who come.

It is a true privilege to be able to serve our community in this way.

If there’s something you do in your church or community which is helping people to have faith in later life, we’d love to hear from you!

For hearing loss training to explore other practical ways to make your churches more accessible for people who are hard of hearing see the Open Ears website.