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deafPLUS has contact with 4,100 Deaf and hard of hearing people each year, recording 20,000 individual contacts.This is a lot of people and a high number of repeat contacts which demonstrate that our services are in demand.
Below are 2 typical individuals that we have assisted the past 12 months. Read on to learn about their individual difficulties and how these were overcome with the help of the deafPLUS team!
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Florence
Florence, or Flo to her family and friends, is an 85 year old lady whose husband sadly passed away 15 years ago.
Since then Flo has been living on her own and in that time her hearing deteriorated to such an extent that she was unable to make any sense of the world around her. She could not hear the telephone ringing nor the person speaking at the other end. She was unable to listen to symphonies by her favourite composer, Vivaldi.
Flo could not even converse with her 2 daughters and son as well as her 6 grandchildren without this becoming a struggle she would rather have done without. And to top it off she couldn’t even watch her favourite BBC television and radio programmes.
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| Flo soon became depressed, isolated and lonely but she did not know what to do. She had been fitted with hearing aids at her local audiology clinic but given poor instructions as to how to use them, and besides she didn’t like the way they felt in her ears. One day she met with her social worker and expressed what a struggle her daily existence had become. The social worker immediately referred Flo to the nearest deafPLUS office, where she underwent an initial assessment by one of our caseworkers. As a result, Flo was shown how to make best use of her hearing aids, given special equipment to help her understand the telephone, radio and TV, and equipped with a vibrating pager system to let her know when there is someone at the door or if the phone is ringing. Additionally the deafPLUS worker directed Flo to one of the several hard of hearing support groups in her area and now she is making lots of new friends. Florence is now a much happier person and she is better able to make sense of the world around her. Her self esteem has received an enormous boost and she is now much more alert and her family and friends have remarked how her life has been turned around, thanks to deafPLUS This is why deafPLUS needs you. People like Flo need your support if they are to lead independent lifestyles. |
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Shasa
Shasa is a profoundly Deaf young woman from Africa who was forced to flee because of the political situation at home. Upon arriving in the UK, she applied for asylum, but as her country is not on the Government’s list of regimes known to practice torture, she was not successful. However a sponsor helped her obtain a student visa. The sponsor provided Shasa with accommodation and food for a year but one day he threw her out so she had to fend for herself. As she is on a student visa she is unable to claim welfare rights benefits of any kind - housing, income support, or travel. She is also not allowed to work. Shasa survived the winter on her own, moving from one temporary accommodation to another and as she had no money, she could not buy food or clothes. She called into our East Acton Centre and we have been assisting her since. Shasa’s struggle continues today and we are alongside her, to ensure she is adequately clothed, fed and housed. We point her towards other agencies who are able to help her and provide her with assistance in communicating and filling in forms and making telephone calls.
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| Supporting people like Shasa is just one of the many things we do every day. Shasa is a vulnerable and disabled person in a strange country and she needs assistance from someone like deafPLUS. She may be just one person, but to us she means a lot and without our assistance she would be alone and unable to understand how to access the complex systems in this country |
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Last Updated on Sunday, 01 November 2009 19:16 |
