Take our free online hearing check. You can also call RNID's telephone hearing check on 0844 800 3838 that Stan mentions in the video above (calls from a BT landline cost up to 5p per minute. Other providers' charges may vary. Call set up charge may apply).
- Aim: To change established attitudes and behaviour in society towards hearing loss and the use of hearing aids.
- Impact: The advertising agency M&C Saatchi has been working
with us (on a pro bono basis) to produce a major attitude and awareness
campaign to be launched at the end of 2009.
We promoted our telephone hearing check at all the major political party conferences and at events run in partnership with local councils and private companies. Information about the check was also widely circulated to the general public and over 1,400 checks were carried out by trained staff and volunteers using handheld checkers at a range of events, from biomedical conferences to health exhibitions. We sent 500 hearing check packs (on request) to employers, and postcards and posters to 200 libraries. We promoted hearing health messages through the Royal British Legion, British Association of Shooting and Conservation, and Age Concern leading to greater levels of awareness amongst key audiences at risk of hearing loss.
- Aim: To make it easy for people to take early action on their hearing loss.
- Impact: By participating in the major European HearCom
research project, we were able to use our technical knowledge and understanding
of users' needs to develop a web-based
hearing check, which we launched in January 2009.
We redeveloped our telephone hearing check with new celebrity recordings by Barbara Windsor and Max Boyce, including a new Welsh language check. By March 2009, almost half a million people had taken action and checked their hearing. About one in five callers were recommended to make an appointment with their GP to start investigating a possible hearing loss and who otherwise have not been aware that there was a potential problem with their hearing.
- Aim: To continue our campaign to ensure NHS waiting times for patients needing hearing aids are reduced.
- Impact: We successfully lobbied the Department of Health
to introduce the maximum 18-week waiting time target in England for audiology
services. By March 2009, 99% of people given hearing aids that month had
waited fewer than 18 weeks to receive a hearing aid which has improved
their ability to communicate and quality of life.
See our impact in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- Aim: To improve the quality of and access to audiology services.
- Impact: We continue to work on the Department of Health's
Audiology Advisory Board to develop quality standards and guidance for
the NHS in England. We also advise those responsible for purchasing hearing
aids for the NHS, aiming to ensure that technology continues to improve
and that users' needs are fully met.
See our impact in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- Aim: To ensure that cochlear implants are routinely available to adults and children who could benefit from them – and that those who could gain substantial additional benefit from an implant in each ear are offered two.
- Impact: Thanks to the lobbying of RNID, NDCS and other
charities, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
introduced new guidance in January 2009. Cochlear implants in both ears
are now recommended for two groups of people who where previously excluded
from routinely being funded on the NHS: adults with severe to profound
deafness who are blind or have other disabilities that affect their spatial
awareness; and all children with severe to profound deafness who don't
get enough benefit from hearing aids.
We also produced groundbreaking research with the Ear Foundation to support our case and provide guidance to schools to ensure that children with cochlear implants can get the best support at school and don't miss out on the benefits of their implants.
- Aim: To change the attitude and engagement of service providing organisations to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Impact: More than 5,900 individuals have received our Deaf
and Disability Awareness (DDAT) or Start to Sign training (which teaches
basic British Sign Language), almost a fifth of whom are frontline staff
at Primary Health Care Trusts and Health Boards. The remainder was delivered
to a mixture of public and private sector organisations helping to improve
access to services for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. We also
set up 56 Training Access Points (TAPs) throughout the UK, which allow
people to access such training quickly and conveniently. They were attended
by people from a wide range of sectors and professions, to improve the
service they provide to customers who are deaf or hard of hearing.
See our impact in Wales.