Independent Living

How a Hearing Dog called Bella helped ex police officer Geraldine Winhall from Norfolk get her life back on track

You can easily help someone who suffers from hearing loss during this year’s Deaf Awareness Week.  In the UK one person in every six suffers some sort of hearing loss, causing exclusion from conversations and often society.

Helping someone understand the products and technology that are available is one very useful way of helping, and can lead to people being included in conversations, listen to the television or even talk on the phone with help of specialised equipment.

Monday 15-21st May 2015 is Deaf Awareness Week aims to improve understanding of the different types of deafness by highlighting the many different methods of communication used by deaf, deafened, deaf-blind and hard of hearing people.

A teenager with quadriplegic cerebral palsy has had his dream bathroom fitted out with adjustable products from Pressalit Care.
 
Thomas Dixon, who lives with his mum and dad in Darlington, is delighted with the new bathroom – especially the lime green colour he selected for the shower chair and arm supports.
To allow Thomas the freedom to move around the house with the space and ease of access he requires, his parents bought a new bungalow, and for the last 18 months have been adapting it with three extensions to suit their needs.

Finding out you have hearing loss can be a shock, the signs can be subtle and it may just creep up on you. If your loved one has been diagnosed you may not know how to help them or where to turn to for support. The HearPeers Mentor Programme is a community of hearing implant users and their family members who are dedicated to supporting individuals who may be going through the same experience.

There are more than 11 million people in the UK with some form of hearing loss – that’s one in six and research shows it takes ten years on average for people to address their problem.

A man who has spent most of his life adult life living in care services and hospitals across the country is now leading an independent life in the community in rural Lincolnshire. 

Martin, who has a number of physical and mental health needs, is now being supported to live in his own self-contained one-bedroom bungalow on the outskirts of Holbeach.

The 36-year-old enjoys helping staff at Willoughby Lodge – run by care provider Regard – around the house and garden, baking and meeting up with friends.

It once might have been that mobility scooters were considered to be the reserve of the elderly. In recent years, that’s all changing.

Now, mobility scooters are often picked as the transport option of choice for younger people with mobility difficulties, many of which are in their 50s, 40s, 30s and even 20s.

What’s making mobility scooters popular with younger people?

An increasing number of younger people are choosing to invest in mobility scooters instead of wheelchairs. New technologies mean that scooters can last longer on one battery charge than they might have done previously, and they’re also more fashionable and more practical.

Two friends from Cornwall are celebrating leaving residential care to live in the community.

Jon Barnes and Sharon Murley both left Highdowns near Camborne – where they have lived for nine years and 10 years respectively – to move to a village near Redruth.

The pair now live at Meadow View, a new supported living service run by care provider Regard, and are already active members of the local community.

Jon, 32, and Sharon, 38, who both have Asperger’s, were supported to take their first steps towards independence by the care team at Highdowns.

Initially, the friends lived in the main house at Highdowns, which is also run by Regard, before eventually moving into self-contained cottages in the grounds of the 10 acre farm.