Residents across Bath & North East Somerset and Wiltshire with hearing loss are being offered a free course to help them with communication in their everyday lives.
The Hearing Therapy team, a local NHS service provided by Virgin Care, are running the course which is designed to offer advice and management for those suffering hearing difficulties, including dealing with the challenges of hearing in background noise.
The course, delivered over four sessions, includes tactics for coping with group conversations and an introduction to lip-reading, in addition to support for maintenance of hearing aids and advice on other assistive equipment and where and how to access it.
Melanie Ward, Head of Hearing Therapy at Virgin Care B&NES said: “With hearing loss affecting over ten million people in the UK, we want to ensure that residents of BaNES, particularly those living outside of Bath city centre, can have access to the help available.
“Our Help for Hearing courses have been very popular in Bath which is why we are extending them into Midsomer Norton and Radstock.
“We know from the feedback we have received that attending these group sessions has been overwhelmingly positive for many people.
“We are really pleased that we can now make them more widely available.”
People attending are also invited to bring along a friend or family member to the sessions.
Anyone interested in finding out more or booking a place on the course should contact 01225 838560.
As well as courses and group sessions, Hearing Therapy is also commissioned to run clinics across B&NES and Wiltshire.
Support and advice is given on hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis (acute sensitivity to everyday sounds), cochlear implants, Access to Work schemes and poor speech recognition even when the hearing test is normal.
You can either self-refer or ask your GP to refer you to the service, providing you have previously seen an NHS Audiologist for a hearing test.
Hearing Therapy is an NHS commissioned service and so there is no charge.
