CamTAD Services during lockdown
Hearing Aid Servicing and Repair Clinics now available more frequently.
We are pleased to announce that we have re-started our hearing aid clinic at London Road Community Hospital following the lockdown with some differences.
The service is strictly an appointment only service for patients who are are currently registered with Derby Hospitals for their hearing aids. If you have hearing aids from one of the high street services then we can still help you to get an appointment with your NHS hearing aid provider.
We initially started offering these on a Saturday as our Resource Centre was being used by another hospital department. We now have the room back and have started offering the sessions during the week. As the service is by appointment, we have the flexibility to offer more repair appointments as demand increases as well as helping you co-ordinate with other appointments you might have at the hospital.
We will continue to offer some limited out-of-hours support on a Saturday to suit patients that work full time or cannot attend in the week.
New Online Hearing Loss Support Groups for Derby & Derbyshire
CamTAD Hearing Support is pleased to announce that they have received a Grant of £8125 from the National Lottery Community Fund’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund.
The project, Virtually Deaf will allow us to create tailored meetings for people with Hearing Loss to help reduce loneliness and the anxiety caused by wearing hearing aids. All of our meetings will be hosted by our Service Manager.
Our Online Support Groups will work a little differently to most as we are using our experiences of hearing loss to make things easier for you. In fact, all of our sessions will be flexibly tailored by you.
We will aim to have six to ten people maximum per session, we will also plan these determined by your availability and will try and pair you with a group from your own community.
These sessions can be purely social or they could have a theme, such as hearing aid care, tinnitus, assistive equipment and more.
We can even offer one-to-one support by video if you would rather us contact you to discuss something privately (also available by Skype, WhatsApp or Facetime, funded by Foundation Derbyshire).
We are asking people to register so that we can help you get the experience you want from the sessions. This will also allow us to take minimal details to help us with our monitoring. Your personal information will not be shared and we will only contact you to arrange a meeting or to get your feedback.
To register please contact us by phone or text message on 07788 715705 or by emailing camtad@camtad.org
Deaf Awareness Week 2020
This week is Deaf Awareness Week and this year the theme is Acquired Deafness. Due to the current Covid-19 crisis many activities have been cancelled across the Country and many of us are in isolation including many of our volunteers and Committee.
Our response to this crisis has been to look at how we can support you during this crisis and beyond and there will be more focus on a wide range of supportive technology moving forward.
There are a variety of ways that communication can be enhanced and we are working at introducing new ways that you can contact us too.
If you struggle to hear on the phone then why not try the following:
Relay UK
Relay UK is the new name for Next Generation Text Relay and is a free to access service which allows you, through using an operator, to get the conversation typed up on either a smart phone, tablet, laptop or PC.
Technology required – Smart phone or tablet or laptop or PC
Video calling
There are so many services that now allow video calling, such as Skype, Facetime or WhatsApp. This is a great way to call someone if you rely on lipreading. Keep an eye on our page as we are looking at ways we can incorporate these services into how you can contact us for advice and support on a one to one basis.
Technology required – Facetime (Apple iphone or ipad), Whatsapp (smart phone or tablet), Skype (smart phone, tablet, laptop or PC)
Video Meetings
Services like Zoom and House Party allow you to connect with much larger groups as well as have multiple family members together at the same time. Imagine celebrating a birthday with a family member in another City or Country alongside other members of your family. Zoom is very popular amongst groups such as Rotary, WI, local charities etc but is easy to use and is free for calls up to 40 minutes.
Technology required – Smart phone, tablet or laptop (or a PC but ideally must have a webcam and microphone)
Join our fundraising efforts during this difficult time
The Staff, Volunteers and Committee members at CamTAD Hearing Support have set up a Go Fund Me donation page where people can donate towards our charity and in particularly the development of new services supporting people with hearing loss.
If you would like to participate you can donate through the link below or if you wish you can join our team and raise funds with us, please send us an email and we can add you to the team on our fundraising page.
Action on Hearing Loss announces it will no longer sell assistive equipment.
Action on Hearing Loss, the leading National hearing loss charity which was previously called RNID or Royal National Institute for the Deaf has announced that from 1st May 2020 they will no longer sell assistive equipment.
This is one of several changes of late which has included selling their HQ and selling their Residential Homes and Care services.
Action on Hearing Loss has been reducing their catalogue sizes for the last few years, relying more on online sales, which we find doesn’t work so well for the older clients that we see. This has led to us producing our own equipment sheets and supporting people to either buy online or over the phone.
Click here to read the article from Action on Hearing Loss website
We are already working with a range of providers that can offer similar great prices and the VAT exemption that you used to enjoy from Action on Hearing Loss.
Our Resource Centre is currently being used buy another hospital department during the current crisis but we are looking forward to being able to showcase new products as well as lots of your favourites too.
How to get your NHS Hearing aid batteries in Derby and Derbyshire
With the country in lockdown and many people unable to leave their homes we felt that it would be a good time to contact each of the providers to determine how patients can get support with the provision of batteries.
This is the picture we have with regards to batteries so far. Please note that patients can only get batteries from whichever hearing aid provider that they initially chose.
CamTAD Hearing Support can post batteries for Derby Hospitals patients or can help High Street NHS Hearing Aid provider patients contact their provider for them.
Specsavers Derby
You can still get through to the hearing care department at the Derby Store on 01332 294939 and they are sending batteries out by courier when requested. You do have to navigate some additional recorded messages about store closures but you can stay on line and choose hearing aids as an option.
Specsavers Ilkeston
The Specsavers Ilkeston store is still open and people can collect batteries in person, they advise to call them first on 01159 441401. They will have them ready to hand over at the door. They do have arrangements to get batteries to their patients when requested and will either hand deliver or post out depending on location.
Scrivens
Scrivens have a recorded message to say that all their stores are closed. There is no option to leave a message but there is an option to email them at customercare@scrivens.com. We emailed them and they responded with a generic email that states: All our customers who already receive batteries through the post, will have them delivered as normal.
The Outside Clinic
This was the easiest provider to get through to. They answered the call first time, they spoke very clearly and they are happy to send out batteries by request for their patients. Phone 0800 954 9107.
Mediscan
We have been informed by patients of Mediscan that they are able to get batteries sent by post if they call the Mediscan number on their letter.
Derby Hospitals Audiology
Patients from Derby Hospitals can call 01332 785345 and leave a message, batteries are usually sent out within 24 hours, Monday to Friday. Alternatively patients can request batteries by email on dhft.audiologydepartment@nhs.net (Batteries through the hospital post system can take up to 2 weeks).
Chesterfield Royal Hospital Audiology
Patients in North Derbyshire can call Chesterfield Royal Hospital on 01246 514403, Monday to Friday, 8.30am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-4.30pm to request batteries or email crhft.audiology@nhs.net and they will post them out.
Patients from Glossop must contact Tameside Audiology.
CamTAD Hearing Support Coronavirus Update 24/03/2020
We are asking all our clients not to attempt to travel to any of our clinics or to our office at the hospital. We have had people calling to see if our clinics are open.
All of our community services are now suspended but our staff, who are working from home are available for advice, for a chat or to organise replacement batteries or tubing by post.
Our telephone lines have been diverted to our mobiles and we have extended our opening hours so that we can be reached, Monday to Friday 8am – 5pm. We are attempting to answer all calls as they come in but if you are prompted to leave a message please ensure you leave a number as your number isn’t displayed when you call.
The Government advice from the Prime Minister’s announcement at 8.30pm on the 23rd March 2020 was as follows:
- Stay at home – no unnecessary journeys or social contact
- Only leave home for essential shopping, medical needs and one form of exercise per day. Always following good hand hygiene and social distancing guidelines
- Use online retailers to deliver essentials wherever possible
- You can travel to and from work if absolutely necessary
- Public gatherings of more than two people are banned – excluding people you live with
- Don’t visit other people’s houses or socialise outside your home
- If unwell, isolate yourself and your family
Any changes to our services will be announced on here.
Support for your hearing aids during the Isolation period
As a charity supporting people with hearing loss we know how distressing it can be when your hearing aids stop working.
Although our clinics are currently closed we can still offer advice and support and we will try and support those whose hearing aids have broken or have become faulty.
We are working with the Derby Hospitals Audiology Service to ensure that we can keep people hearing even if they are isolated at home.
For a few simple to use guides please click on the following links:
How to check if a hearing aid is working
How to insert a hearing aid with a thin tube
How to insert a hearing aid with an ear mould
How to take a hearing aid mould out of the ear
We are also offering to post out tubing and batteries as well as helping with more urgent repairs.
Major disruption to services due to Coronavirus
Following the announcements by the Government on Monday 16th March 2020 we have had to make the difficult decision to suspend all our Community Outreach sessions including Hearing Aid Clinics and Coffee Mornings.
Please be assured that we will restart these services at the earliest SAFE opportunity.
We are still available for the following services, please call us on 01332 258143, text us on 07788 715705 or email us at camtad@camtad.org
- Our office opening hours will be extended to facilitate greater availability of telephone and email advice allowing for timely responses.
- Batteries and replacement tubing can be requested by phone
- Urgent repair appointments may be available by contacting the numbers above
- Support to make appointments with your Hearing Aid provider
As we are a charity based in the hospital but with outreach services in a variety of community facilities we need to consider a range of advice from National and local agencies.
- NHS
- University Hospitals of Derby and Burton
- World Health Organisation (WHO)
- UK Government COBRA
As a small local charity supporting people with hearing loss we are aware that many of our clients are at an age which makes them more at risk of health complications.
There are a number of factors that may impact upon our sessions in the Community including the venues that we use and the availability of our volunteers to deliver the service. We will keep this page regularly updated for you.
Posters will be displayed at our venues detailing any changes.
Current information and advice regarding the coronavirus can be found on the NHS website at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
