Joanne's story

People in this video

Joanne: Joanne Watters, RNID’s Outreach Information Manager

Joanne: Today, the Regional Communications and Information team is at Earl’s Court. And wer'e here for the Retirement Show. We've actually got a stand here and our main focus is to actually reach people who are hard of hearing and haven't received any information yet, who think that maybe they may have a hearing loss and not sure what to do next. So, we ensure that they have our information on our hearing check, which we do over the phone, but also tell them what happens next. And the Solutions catalogue and general RNID information.

So the RNID Solutions catalogue, which we always try to ensure people have, shows tried and tested products which may help a person’s life. We’ve got various products in the Solutions catalogue which can help people – from products which help with tinnitus to amplified telephones to various alerting systems to plain and simple books and CDs, really. Just to really make a difference to people's lives.

What we also ensure we do on the information stands is that people get the RNID Information Line number, where they can call up and get information on local services, RNID services and other services that can help them if they are deaf and hard of hearing.

So, the Regional Communications and Information team is split into regions. There is a Regional Communications and Information Officer based in each region and we also have Volunteer Coordinators and Outreach Information Officers. They actually work on a local basis with the focus on community engagement and reaching the community.

We do this through various methods – we come to information stands, such as today, at large exhibitions. But we also go to smaller information days. So the important thing we have to ensure is that we have partnership working. We also go out to deaf clubs, hard of hearing clubs, lipreading classes and older people day centres, where we give a talk on our services and where we can have one to ones with the people who have attended the talk.

We always have really positive evaluation feedback. Just this morning, an elderly lady who actually attended last year, came and spoke to Caroline, who is the RCIO for this area. She'd actually spoken to Caroline last year, she thought that maybe she did have a hearing loss and Caroline gave her the information which she needed to take it one step further. She actually went and had a hearing check. She now has a hearing aid and it has just completely improved and changed her life.

We have two staff based in Northern Ireland, we also have three staff based in Scotland and also in Wales, so we provide RNID information across the whole of the UK.

As RNID staff, we really enjoy being part of a team and working in regional communications and information. We actually have direct contact with the community and provide them face-to-face with information, especially when we attend clubs and various groups. We will go back there and we can speak to them afterwards actually and find out if we did make a difference to their lives.

We also have various lottery projects in the South West and in the North of England and here we actually have volunteers. The majority of these are deaf or hard of hearing and it really helps their confidence-building, engaging with the community. And we've had some really positive outcomes. Some people who started as volunteers and had low self-esteem and low confidence are now, a year or two down the line, they are doing talks independently and providing one-on-one information independently, so it is very positive.