SWANSEA HARD OF HEARING GROUP
Newsletter
February 2017
Hello again. The next meeting will be on
Date: Friday 3rd February 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 the Metro bus (4) stops outside.
Last meeting
The hoped-for speaker never materialised so we had the opportunity to have a general chin wag, look at the photos from the Christmas party and just enjoy a bit of social life. We often don’t have as much time for that as we would wish.
Next meeting
We will be welcoming Catherine who is a ‘Managing Better’ Caseworker from Care and Repair Western Bay for the February meeting. This organisation has grown a lot in recent years and it will be interesting to hear just what they can do – more than you think, I suspect.
A spring outing
“If winter’s here, can spring be far behind?” Well, hopefully not and we are already at the end of January. We still have some funds left from the Big Lottery grant, so thought it would be good to have a gentle outing to start the year. Although some of us have done it before, many haven’t and it will make a good day out, so a boat trip up the Tawe is being arranged with lunch to follow. This will probably be on Friday 31st March so more details next time. It would be useful if you could let us know if you will be able to come or definitely can’t make it
Subtitles
The campaigning by Action on Hearing Loss (AoHL) is beginning to bear fruit in that BT TV are adding subtitles to more of their ‘on-demand’ services. They have pledged that this will cover 50% of their output by the middle of this year. Sky TV are already on the case and, hopefully, the other companies will follow suit soon.
Research
An AoHL funded research study in the University of East Anglia has been looking at why it is so difficult to follow conversations in noisy places, especially when you get older. They have found that if you compare a student with mild hearing loss with an older person with an identical level of loss, the student can manage to understand speech much better. This suggests that it is the older person’s brain that is struggling rather than their ears! The researchers worry that the mental effort to follow speech gets harder with age and can, in some cases, even lead to onset of dementia.
Since our group has quite a few members over 80 and several over 90, with no sign of dementia, it can’t be too bad. Unless you think that dressing up as Snow White is an early sign . . . . .
An Information Day
Action on Hearing Loss Cymru are holding an ‘Information Day’ in conjunction with several other organisations such as RNIB in the Grand Theatre on Monday 6th March. We will have a stand with a display of leaflets, photos etc. All ideas welcome plus we will need to make sure there are always 2 or 3 members there to chat to any of the public showing the slightest interest. Our March meeting will be on the previous Friday so we can make final arrangements then.
Thought of the month
Doug went for a hair cut the other day and thought ‘one advantage of hearing aids is that, when you take them out, it all goes quiet’. So he could barely hear the clatter of the clippers. The downside was that he just nodded when the barber asked a question that he didn’t hear properly and he ended up looking like a bouncer – or so his wife said!
Finally
We look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it on Friday 3rd February
Doug 07866 191179 (text or phone)
Jean (01792) 290769
Alison 07974 120996 (text or phone)