"My hearing world was completely transformed"

My wife and I live together in our dwelling in a rural setting as we have done for all our married life, 54 years.

I have had progressive difficulty with my hearing for at least 20 years.

I have been wearing 2 hearing aids for some time now and, indeed, I don't know what I would do without them.

This last few years I was having great difficulty hearing people talking to me directly, receiving phone calls, watching television, hearing door bells or smoke alarms. My wife had to accompany me to meetings re my health, essential services etc and answering phone calls. It was very depressing and distressing.

However, recently my local Audiology Dept supplied me with a new set of Hearing Aids. At the same time I was made aware that these Aids were bluetooth enabled.  My hearing world was completely transformed, I was able to receive and make phone calls clearly and distinctly through the Bluetooth facility. I was put in touch with the Sensory Support Services of our local Audiology Dept.

June, an Evironmental Technical Officer with the Sensory Services Support team, was allocated to be my support/consultant.

She visited me at my home and immediately involved my wife in every aspect of her service delivery. June explained to us the assistive devices which I could avail of to help me with my difficulties and how to access them. She even set up two devices for me to use on a trial basis at home for a week to determine if they would be of any benefit to me.

She was patient, courteous, generous with her time and knowledge, was empathetic and could not do enough to help us. As a consequence, I have purchased a TV Adapter and a device to connect to my hearing aids to help me deal with those situations where I would most frequently have difficulty in communicating with others.

Though she is no longer involved with us directly she has told us to contact her if we were having any difficulties or problems with my Hearing Aids in the future.

June is a role model for her department and I could not recommend her highly enough.