ISSUE 12 ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter 2015

The “Hear Here” Team wishes all our readers a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful Christmas & Best Wishes for 2016

CHRISTMAS CAROL CONCERTS

This year Nugent Care’s Carol concerts are in aid of homeless people :-

Friday 4th December 7.30pm: SS Peter & Paul , Road, Crosby L25 5TE Featuring: Catholic Primary School Choir, Holy Family Catholic High School Choir and Liverpool Voice

Saturday 12th December 7.30pm: Our Lady of the Annunciation Church Bishop Eton, Woolton Road, Liverpool, L16 8NQ Featuring: St. Austin’s Catholic Primary School Choir, New Era, plus other special guests

Come and join us and sing some of your favourite Christmas carols.

Ticket price: Adult £5, children free (inclusive of refreshments)

Proceeds from this concert will support people living in poverty. There will be a raffle and a stall selling Christmas decorations during the interval.

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TATTON TRIP

Lipreading class members from , and Liverpool went on a coach trip to Tatton Park. The weather held out for us and a good time was had by all.

The house was as beautiful as ever and the gardens were in full bloom. You cannot beat a bit of English heritage on a lovely summer’s day. There were several cafes to choose from and some members did partake in all of them, as it would have been rude not to ! The cream tea looked delicious. Some members used the free mobility scooters around the gardens and the staff were very helpful with their instructions and guidance. The gardens are a must see attraction at Tatton anytime of the year.

During the summer, Tatton Park had an exhibition of the work of Cristina Rodrigues which we were able to view on the day. Cristina is a Portuguese artist who has made her home in .

The exhibition was called 'Guardian Angels.' The pieces were said to reflect her Portuguese origins but also her own integration into the British culture. Cristina’s art celebrates the role of women in society, across different cultures and tells their combined stories.

We are hoping to put on another trip in early March 2016. If you have any suggestions please mention them to a “Hear Here” member of staff.

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END OF TERM LUNCHES

In July, the Formby group descended on Formby Hall & Golf Club which is set in beautiful grounds and has a lovely formal dining room so we were on our best behaviour.

Brie, Mary's hearing dog, naturally was the best behaved! She is a real PR dog getting lots of pats and attention wherever she goes with Mary. Other groups there were most interested in Brie. She is a real ambassador for Hearing Dogs. Our meals were delicious and we all agreed it had been a lovely venue. Joyce Trueman

Not to be outdone, the Old Swan group went to The Adelphi Hotel for their end of term lunch. They had a three course carvery. The staff arranged a quiet area and were very helpful on the day - ‘thank you’!

These lunch outings arranged by Louise give us all a chance to get to know each other better and it is wonderful to enjoy a meal where everyone gives each other the opportunity to speak and lipread. Bring on more social events, Louise !

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY PHILIP !

Some of you will remember Philip Graves from our Old Swan Lipreading group. He now lives in Formby.

He had a significant birthday recently, he was 50 years young in October.

Love and best wishes from all your ‘old’ friends in the Old Swan Lipreading Group

Philip with Eileen, Louise and Anne, taken during the celebration meal with Philip’s family.

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LIVERPOOL EMPIRE ‘ACCESS FOR ALL’

Liverpool’s Empire Theatre held an “Access for All” Open Evening in the theatre’s circle bar on the evening of Monday 20th July. Alison, Louise, Graham and I attended the event.

The theatre’s disability officer opened the proceedings. She told us about her role and introduced the people who describe and interpret stage performance. They gave presentations about audio description, captioning and signing. All methods are designed to give access to live performances for those who are blind, visually impaired, Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing.

Audio description is a verbal commentary for the blind or visually impaired, which describes what is happening on stage. This description will include the scenery, dress, facial expressions and actions. The audience listens through a headset or earpiece. Touch tours may also be available for audio described performances.

The BSL interpreter for Deaf people, described how he signs the words spoken and sung by the actors. The interpreter usually stands at the side of the stage. He signed and spoke throughout his presentation which included visual expression.

The captioner described how he would prepare the captions in advance and cue them live at a performance. He is likely to know the production very well. The captions are similar to television subtitles and give Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people access to a live performance. When making a booking it is necessary to check where to sit in order to have a good view of the captions.

There is also an infrared sound amplification system at the theatre. The theatre provides neck loops for the use of hard of hearing people.

We were shown a stage show on a small screen to see, hear and watch the transcribers and interpreters at work all at the same time! They were very professional, well trained and entertaining. It was fascinating to see how they were able to combine different forms of communication in such detail.

We then split into groups and fed back our thoughts. There was then an opportunity to have a look around other parts of the theatre whilst ‘out of hours’. The evening was very useful and there will be further meetings to ensure the accessibility needs of theatre-goers are met. Val Eden

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MSDP VISIT OLD SWAN CLASS

Chris and Peter from MSDP were guest speakers at the Old Swan class in October. This was a very informative talk on the referral and assessment process for specialist equipment. Specialist equipment can make a huge difference to those living with a hearing loss.

Merseyside Society for Deaf People exists to promote and advance the quality of life for all D/deaf, Deaf Blind and Hard of Hearing people. The Society exists as a guiding hand to support and promote independent living and access to services. For further details please contact MSDP : Phone (Voice or minicom): 0151 228 0888 Email: [email protected] Fax: 0151 228 6021 Find us at our Head Office: 3TC House, 16, Crosby Road North Waterloo L22 0NY

COMING SOON ! CHAIR BASED EXERCISES

We are very pleased to be able to offer exercise sessions for our members and others with a hearing loss. The sessions are chair based and suitable for most people. The sessions will start in the New Year (date to be confirmed).

Please contact Clare for more information (contact details on page 12).

A short health check will be undertaken to ensure suitability before commencing.

CONDOLENCES

We offer our sincere condolences to the families of Dorothy McGauley and Sylvia Jackson who passed away recently. They were visited by “Hear Here” Volunteer Visitors in the Southport area.

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HEARING LINK “HEAR & NOW” EVENT A large group from “Hear Here” attended this event in “The Devonshire Hotel & Conference Centre” Liverpool. All the professional speakers were superb.

Helen Dowber from “Resound” brought us up to date on the research they are doing to improve hearing aids by suppressing feedback to give clearer quieter sounds, free of the noises surrounding the listener and cutting out whistling.

She highlighted that Skype allows lipreading and improves communication. Smart phones and Bluetooth can be linked to hearing aid systems and this can make it possible to personalise sound input.

Laura Arends from “Stagetext” said they are encouraging theatres and cinemas (even museums and conferences) to install equipment which makes it possible to follow what is happening on the stage/screen. (A later speaker highlighted it was essential for each actor to have a microphone as central microphones would not work satisfactorily). During the lunch break I told her about the sub-titled films shown by the Mount Pleasant in Southport and she will follow this up - the pub may get more people for lunch if they provide subtitled films - Southport trendsetting!

Gaynor Chittick reported on the special developments at Hospital Audiology. Awareness courses have been held so that nurses can test hearing aids, fit new batteries and insert the aids when a patient is unable to do this themselves. Every nurse and doctor is now trained in this way. Vibrating devices alert people when it is their turn at Outpatient clinics.

Clinics have loop systems and wards have bedhead notices for patients which include details of hearing needs. Each ward has a deaf ‘champion’ who knows how to arrange language interpreters.

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HEARING LINK “HEAR & NOW” EVENT Dave Barratt on the BT stand had a lot of enquiries about specialist equipment and gave lots of tips on best phone reception, T-switches, hands-free systems, cordless phones, on-line chat “Livechat”, “Next Generation Text” - an app direct giving speech text links see http://ngts.org/uk Dave suggested before buying equipment, ask to try it or borrow from friends, ask around and find out what helps other people.

Nicola Robinson from “Cochlear” described how cochlear implants work. No longer is it necessary to be profoundly deaf to be considered for a cochlear implant as they endeavour to see that each person receives the best equipment for their personal circumstances. They also teach people how to cope with tinnitus and balance problems. New users have a three month assessment period to give a good diagnosis. Though expectations must be realistic, family support and understanding will assist towards a successful outcome. Contact with other users is very helpful. www.cochlear.com

The final speaker was Lyndon Thomas who said each person needed to work out what they found difficult or impossible e.g. hearing a sat. nav., a passenger in the car, TV, in restaurants, in a crowd. Then they should ask audiologists what was available to solve these problems. Manufacturers will supply detailed answers to questions and tell people where equipment is available.

Sheryl, the “Speech to Text” reporter was outstanding typing everything that was being said. It must be VERY difficult to do this so rapidly. One speaker mentioned Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer and it came up as ‘Ant Ark Tick’ - this was probably her only anomaly all day — I thought she was brilliant !

I am grateful to “Hearing Link” for running the Conference, bringing in organisations to answer questions and supplying lunch, tea and coffee. There were some practical problems around the use of microphones, neck loops, video sound quality and timings and our comments were fed back to “Hearing Link”.

June Hobley

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THIS AND THAT

Tea dances at the Atkinson Gallery Southport 16th November 2015 14th December 2015 18th January 2016 Dancing 1.30pm to 4.00pm, entrance price £2.00. Refreshments are available to buy throughout the afternoon.

Free Subtitled Films The Mount Films continue to be popular - different subtitled films every Thursday at 2.30pm. Recent films have included A Royal Night Out, Woman in Gold, The Choir, Mr Holmes, Jurassic World, Danny Collins and Spy. There will be a Christmas Lunch available nearer Christmas but you need to book early as the food is good home cooked food at reasonable prices. For updated information on films contact: The Mount Pleasant, 107 Manchester Road, Southport, 01704 514131. Details are also available on Southport Hear Here Facebook page and displayed in the Southport office. Coffee Mornings Lipreading members met up at the Atkinson Gallery for coffee and a chat during the summer holidays, it gave members a chat to still get out on a Tuesday and keep in contact with other members.

Monthly Meals The monthly meals are back up and running, a favourite haunt of the members is the Old Ship Inn on Eastbank Street, Southport. The food is good with 3 courses for £5.00 - a bargain! The portions are not huge but with 3 courses who wants huge portions? The Mount on Manchester Road also often does meals which usually coincide with a good film to follow. The time to eat is usually 1pm. For updates places contact: Alison 07717 788457 The Computer Club The computer club continues usually on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 1.30pm to 3.00pm. They are always busy putting the world to rights, chatting and laughing so the time flies by. The next computer club is on 18th November 2015. So if you have a computer problem that you would like sorting out, come along with your tablet, phone or laptop and see if they can help you.

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LIPREADING CLASS VENUES

Each term is 10 weeks (2 hours per week) and classes are held as follows: St Oswald’s Presbytery Old Swan : Wednesday mornings 10.00 am to 12.00 noon Chain Lane Comm. Ctr. St Helens : Thursday mornings 10.00 am to 12.00 noon Chain Lane Comm. Ctr. St Helens : Thursday afternoons 1.15 pm to 3.15 pm United Reformed Church Formby : Tuesday mornings 10.30 am to 12.30 pm “Hear Here” Stanley St. Southport : Tuesday mornings 10.15 am to 12.15 pm “Hear Here” Stanley St. Southport : Tuesday afternoons 1.15 pm to 3.15 pm Donations are welcomed to support the work of the “Hear Here” Project

Interested ? In the first instance please contact Graham Maher (Project Leader) on 0151 261 2051 direct line, Mobile 07717 788458, or email [email protected]

The new term of classes started in September and they are as popular as ever!

Following the retirement of Angela Jackson and , the St Helens lipreading classes have moved to Thursdays and are delivered by Alison Wareing.

Angela, her husband Alan and Annie are hoping to join the St Helens group for their Christmas get together. A little note from Angela and Annie:- “Annie is really missing everyone...... and the extra fuss she got! I miss everyone too, but mostly not being at work.”.

Angela with the “Hear Here” Team Annie (Angela’s Hearing Dog) Clare, Alison, Graham and Louise

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SUPPORT GROUPS

Aintree Tinnitus Support Group Meetings Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month in Room 2.07 of the Clinical Science Centre, Aintree University Hospital. The meetings start at 6 pm and finish at 7.30 pm. (no meeting in January or August). For enquiries: 0151 529 0328

Aintree Cochlear Implant Support Group Meetings Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month in Room 2.07 of the Clinical Science Centre, Aintree University Hospital. The meetings start at 1pm and finish at 3pm (no meeting in January or August). For enquiries: 0151 529 0328

Aintree Basic Hearing Aid Maintenance Course Meetings are held on the last Friday morning of each month at 9.30am. The course covers basic maintenance such as re-tubing ear moulds, fault finding and hygiene The course starts at 9:30am. For enquiries: 0151 529 0328

Aintree Balance Support Group Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month from 2:15pm to 4pm in the physiotherapy dept, (gym 1) UHA at Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (no meeting in January or August). For enquiries: 0151 529 0328

St Helens Deafness Resource Centre Tinnitus Support Group First Wednesday of each month from 10.00am -12 noon 32-40 Dentons Green Lane, St Helens, WA10 2QB For enquiries: 01744 23887 [email protected]

Widnes Tinnitus Support Group Future dates not yet decided Runneymede Court, William St, Widnes, WA8 6RN For enquiries: 01744 23887 Mavis Lewin www.deafnessresourcecentre.org

Runcorn Tinnitus Support Group Future dates not yet decided Hanover Court, Palacefields Ave, Runcorn, WA7 6EJ For enquiries: 01744 23887 Mavis Lewin www.deafnessresourcecentre.org

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CAPTIONED THEATRE PERFORMANCES

Liverpool Empire Theatre 0844 871 7677; email: [email protected] www.atgtickets.com/venues/liverpool-empire Shrek the Musical Thursday 3rd Dec 2015 7.00pm Dick Whittington Tuesday 29th Dec 2015 7.00pm The Body Guard Monday 2nd May 2016 7.30pm

Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Theatres 0151 709 4776; email: [email protected] www.everymanplayhouse.com Haunting of Hill House Thursday 7th January 2016 7.30pm Rapunzel Saturday 16th January 2016 1.30pm

Manchester Palace Theatre 0161 245 6605; email: [email protected] www.atgtickets.com/venues/palace-theatre-manchester The Bodyguard Wednesday 30th December 2015 7.30pm

Royal Exchange Theatre—Manchester 0161 833 9833; email: [email protected] www.royalexchange.co.uk/page.aspx Pomona Thursday 19th Nov 2015 7.30pm Into the Woods Tuesday 5th Jan 2016 7.30pm Wit Thursday 11th Feb 2016 7.30pm

The Lowry 0843 208 6000; email: [email protected] www.thelowry.com

The Sound of Music Tuesday 22nd December 2015 7.30pm The Girls Friday 29th January 2016 7.30pm Shrek the Musical Thursday 11th February 2016 7.00pm

How to check out the subtitled films available in your area each week:- Go to www.yourlocalcinema.com Click on ‘subtitled’ films rather than audio described. Scroll all the way down (past the areas) to select your region (Liverpool or Southport etc.) The information for each cinema in your region will be there i.e. which film … on which day … at which time. This site also provides subtitled trailers !

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NUGENT CARE’S ‘LIGHT UP A LIFE’ SERVICE

Nugent Care’s annual “Light Up a Life” service will take place at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral on Wednesday 16th December at 12.30 midday led by Bishop Tom Williams (followed by refreshments). Everyone who dedicates a light will receive a star at the service to write a personal message. The star will be placed on the tree in memory of their loved one and their name will be entered into our book of remembrance which will be displayed at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral over Christmas and the New Year. See a member of the “Hear Here” Team for a booking form (suggested donation £5).

LIPREADING GROUPS CHRISTMAS LUNCHES 2015

Formby : 8th December The Pinewoods Southport : 8th December Auberge Liverpool : 9th December Dobbies Speke St Helens : 10th December The Waterside Volunteers : To be decided Dobbies Southport Many thanks to all our members for the help received with refreshments and for all your donations which help to keep the project going.

THE “HEAR HERE” PROJECT TEAM You can contact the team members at: 23a Stanley Street, Southport, PR9 0BS : Alison Wareing: Project Worker & Lipreading Tutor Tel: 01704 534102, Mobile: 07717 788457, Email: [email protected]

Louise Cantwell: Project Worker & Lipreading Tutor Mobile: 07717 788456 (text only), Email: [email protected]

Clare Daly: Volunteer Co-ordinator Tel: 01704 539927, Mobile: 07920 078194, Email: [email protected]

Nugent Care Head Office, 99 Edge Lane, Liverpool L7 2PE :

Graham Maher: Project Leader Tel: 0151 261 2051, Mobile: 07717 788458, Email: [email protected]

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