Hearing aid support group meets in LaFayette
BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — Local residents and staff members from the Auburn University Speech and Hearing Clinic met for the Hear Together support group at the Chambers County Community Health and Wellness Center in LaFayette on Friday, March 20. Clinic Director Erin Reynolds shared details of what the group has to offer to the community.
“We meet on Friday mornings for what we call an aural rehabilitation group,” she said. “We call the group Hear Together — it is for anyone who wears hearing aids. They don’t have to have gotten them here, they could have gotten them anywhere. It gives patients an opportunity to learn more about their hearing devices and the apps that go along with them, to talk through and trouble- shoot problems together, learn from each other about hearing better and commu- nicating more easily through their hearing.”
Reynolds said she has seen growth in the group and the impact it has had on participants.
“This is wrapping up our first year together,” she said. “We started summer of last year, in June. It has been fun. We have gotten to know each other better as a group, so we are building community, which I think is important and valuable. We have learned together about things, and as a professional who doesn’t wear hearing devices, I am learning what their experience is like. For people who are wearing hearing aids and working through that together, I think that they learn from each other. [They can remember everyone goes] through that initial shock, and it is perhaps a reminder that the world is a noisy place but that their brain can learn to remember what they want to listen to or pay attention to or what they don’t.”
Reynolds said through providing a space for community, students are also able to see what helps those going through the experience of using hearing assistance devices.
“Community building, working together and learning from each other has been really important here,” she said. “The students who are working with us get to learn a lot too and they get to lead the group which is valuable for them as well. I hope the patients who participate would say that they feel a lot of support from it, in terms of in the group, with each other, from us as professionals and from the university. [We want them] to feel supported, cared for, to feel like they get their questions answered and that we are not just selling them a device or a product and walking away — that we are also providing that learning time and support for them.”
Providing enjoyable education, Reynolds said participants enjoy their time together and the information they are able to recieve.
“I think community time, getting to know other people [is important],” she said. “[We create a space where they are] able to have some quality conversations with each other and learn to do that again after they have had hearing loss for a while. Also [we want them to] understand the devices that they have purchased — and spent a lot of money on — to understand how to use them to their fullest potential.”
Reynolds said partnerships and community sup- port enable the success of the Hear Together group.
“[We are thankful for] our partnership is with the Com- munity Health and Wellness Center and with Auburn University through the AU Speech and Hearing clinic,” she said. “Then [we receive support from] the community at large here, in terms of the people who decide to come through our door and work with us. It is open, it is not just for our patients — if they wanted to bring a family member or if they had a neighbor and thought ‘Oh, maybe this person could use a hearing aid but does not have one’ then maybe they would just like to learn more. It is open to anyone in the community.”
Reynolds said the Hearing Clinic offers resources and options for a variety of needs.
“We offer hearing tests and hearing devices in our clinic here, mainly for older children and adults of all ages,” she said. “We also offer services for speech and language therapy, that is mainly for children, but we see adults as well out here, currently on Monday afternoons. Appointments are made through the Auburn University Speech and Hearing Clinic. We are here every week providing those services and always are happy to have new patients and people who just have questions.”
