5 December 2022Deafness centre urges regions to grow social support for hearing impaired
6 December 2022 | Dione David
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The ACT Deafness Resource Centre wants more hearing loss support groups in regional areas to achieve better social inclusion. Photo: File.
Having lived with hearing loss all her life, Batemans Bay resident Lee Raper is familiar with the exclusion she says comes with the territory.
“People don’t mean to do it,” she says.
“If you’re out socially with background noise and whatnot, even if people are aware of your problems with hearing, they forget after a few minutes and you spend most of the time unable to participate.
“Generally you don’t want to be left out. You go along hoping to join in and be sociable. But after a while you just stop going, and that can be pretty isolating.”
Lee knew she couldn’t be the only person in the region experiencing the issue but said there were no opportunities for people with hearing loss to meet socially.
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She reached out to ACT Deafness Resource Centre (DRC) communications officer Joe Symons, who gave a presentation encouraging the community to start local support [...]