SWANSEA HARD OF HEARING GROUP



[pic][pic]

SWANSEA HARD OF HEARING GROUP

Newsletter October 2017

Hello again. The next meeting will be on

Date: Friday 6th October Time: 3.30p.m. to 5.30 p.m.

Venue: Discovery Room in the Central Library in the Civic Centre.

For those who haven’t been there before, the room is at the far end of the first floor – there is access by both lift and stairs. Parking is free and bus No. 4 stops outside.

IMPORTANT Christmas lunch details included

Last meeting

Martin Griffiths came to tell us about the ‘Live well with hearing loss’ project which aims to help people who are hard of hearing make the best of the available support. This covers not just making good use of hearing aids but also knowing how to access and use new technology. He talked, for example, about one lady who had been given some expensive kit by social services but didn’t know how to set it up.

He was very keen to recruit volunteers in the Swansea area since some funding had recently become available. This sort of volunteering can be very rewarding for the volunteer as well as for the person helped. Importantly, there is no cost involved as all transport costs are refunded. A half day training session is held in Cardiff with a follow up 1 – 2 hour 1-to-1 meeting which can be at your home. The hours spent thereafter are entirely up to you – just a couple of hours once a month is valuable.

You will get to have a small range of gadgets on loan to demonstrate to those you are trying to help. You might go to peoples’ homes or you might be part of a drop in session in the hospital. Overall, it will be an interesting time - meeting new faces is always interesting - a good way of staving off dementia! – see ‘Research’ below. Please try to help if you possibly can – a very worthwhile cause.

Alternatively, if you can only spare just a few hours on the 8th October, why not raise some funds to support work like Martin’s? All you have to do is find a few sponsors and jump off Newport Transporter Bridge in an abseil harness. It is only 178 feet and the experts there will make sure you don’t get wet!

Finally, he said that the Annual Action on Hearing Loss Cymru Gala Dinner at St David’s Hotel in Cardiff should be both a good meal and a fun night out. Slight snag – tickets are £50 each.

So, three ways of having fun – speak to Doug, Jean or Alison if you want to know more.

Next meeting

Some of you may remember Paul from Action on Hearing Loss Cymru coming a few months ago talking about their new 5 year strategy plan. The draft of this has now been produced, incorporating some of our ideas and he is coming to update us.

Also this month Alison is going to bring us up to speed on the other organisations that can help those of us with hearing loss.

And, if there is time, we really will see some slides of the visits to Dynefwr and the Royal Mint.

Forthcoming Information event Wednesday 4th October 2017

Thanks to Kay for alerting us to a free seminar for people with vision or hearing loss to be held in The Grand Theatre, Swansea on Wednesday 4th October from 1.15 – 5pm

There will be presentations from an Opthalmologist, the charity Sense and the local Sensory Team plus demonstrations of aids and equipment and services available in the community.

This is a FREE event but you must book a place by contacting Singleton Eye Clinic:

Tel: 01792 200 390 or email: susan.neale@.uk

Christmas lunch and party

We have booked the same private room as last year at the Towers Hotel, Jersey Marine from 12 to 4 on Friday 8th December. There is a dedicated kitchen for the room which accounts for the price being slightly higher than normal - £25 per head for 3 courses plus tea or coffee. It proved to be very good value. The actual cost will be nil for members thanks to the generosity of the Big Lottery. The menu is attached and the choices need to be made and given to Jean by the 3rd of November at the latest. The hotel has asked for numbers and menu choices to be given to them at least a month ahead. We will want a £5 booking fee – for refunding if you come.

It will be a glittering occasion with a raffle, party games and entertainment from our not-so-mystery guest – Lady Henrietta Hoodwink. She tells us that she has a new fancy dress costume and there will be a competition to guess what it is going to be. It may be male or female, real or fictional, alive or dead – any from Pirate King to Lady Gaga! Since the hotel is fairly local, there will not be a coach but there are sufficient non-drinking car drivers to make sure we all get there – and back.

Last outing

This was the trip to the Royal Mint in Llantrisant – ‘the hole with the mint in the middle’ – as some call it! We were split into two groups for the tour which included a talk and video, a view of the factory floor and ample time to browse in their museum and, of course, their souvenir shop. Some of the statistics were amazing – 75 million coins a day are produced with 24 hour working. They make coins for some 57 other countries as well as special medals – such as for the Olympic Games. Details of just how the current coins are produced were fascinating.

Especial thanks this time goes to the Swansea Branch of the Leeds Building Society whose generous donation paid for the coach hire. As usual, the entry fee and £5 contribution to lunch cost for members was paid from our Big Lottery grant from the Awards for All scheme.

Next outing

This will be to Llancaiach Fawr but not until the spring. To be arranged.

Lip reading

Grace started a new series of weekly lessons on Thursday 14 September in the Discovery Room from 1.15 to 3.15 p.m. Even if you can hear most of the time, lip reading can help fill in some of the gaps where you only partially hear. If you missed the first class, don’t worry. You can join at any time. It is a friendly group and they have a lot of fun – and improve their lip reading, of course.

Research

You may have seen reports in the press about links between hearing loss and dementia. A review of the latest research by Action on Hearing Loss has shown that some 65% of the risk of developing dementia is down to things we can’t control such as hereditary factors. Of the other 35%, hearing loss is just one of several things that you may be able to control. These include keeping the brain active, keeping the body active, not smoking, keeping your weight down, controlling diabetes etc.

You can’t do much about hearing loss – just make sure you have hearing aids and use them. Some of the link with dementia is possibly due to hearing loss causing social isolation – combating that is why this group exists, of course.

Technology

The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is a term used to refer to a network of devices that communicate with each other using the internet. ‘If This Then That’ (IFTTT) is an app which uses applets (small applications which only carry out one specific task) to allow devices to communicate with each other using the rule: “If This” device is used, “Then That” device will do something. So for example, if your IFTTT alarm goes off, then your IFTTT watch will vibrate to alert you.

Don’t worry – these things are still in the early stages. Action on Hearing Loss tested one where ringing the doorbell was supposed to flash a light. It did but over a minute later! So, early days! But they will be useful one day – leave the fridge door open and it will send you a text message, for instance.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it on Friday 6th October.

Doug 07866 191179 (text or phone) bart.fast@yahoo.co.uk

Jean (01792) 290769 jeanwaters54@

Alison 07974 120996 (text or phone) alison.parry@

Towers menu on next page . . . .

[pic]

If you can’t print this, there will be copies at the next meeting or you can have one posted.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download