Dr.Emilio Cortez, winner of the Marcia Finisdore HLAA-PA Advocacy Award has prepared a valuable information sheet about Noise Induced Hearing Loss, the basis of the award. You can find this sheet HERE
rev 9/16
Save the date – July 17
MontCo HLAA invites HLAA members, families and friends to a picnic at Fort Washington State Park. A beautiful spot and not hard to get to. This year we’ll be at the new MHL-3 Pavilion, adjacent to a fine playground.
Sunday, July 17, from 1 to 5
Watch here for further details.
Park map showing location HERE.
Turea Hutson spoke about the Community Connections program in Montgomery County, and the role of the “Navicate”. She is the program’s manager.
Community Connections is an innovative approach to provide services to people who need them most, where they need them most—in their community. Community Connections offices are one-stop service centers in an initial four locations around Montgomery County—Willow Grove, Pottstown, Lansdale and Norristown.
The meeting served two purposes; introduction of Community Connections to MontCo HLAA, and introduction of MontCo HLAA to Community Connections, and there was extended discussion of how our group might be of service to their function.
Don Groff spoke about “Dealing with Hearing Loss in Public Spaces”, using his prototype ‘two tin cans on a string’ as a starting point.
Tin Can #1: typically microphone or a sound track.
String: Wire, FM, IR, or loop connection
Tin Can #2: Earpiece, Hearing aid (T-coil)
The pluses and minuses on streaming systems were discussed.
There were 16 in the audience. CART transcript available on request to hlaamcc(at)gmail.com
Announcement of note:
May meeting – Montgomery County Navicates
Lunch & Learn – May 7
National Convention – June 23 -26, Washington, DC
Picnic – July 17
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April 4, 2016 at the Jeanes Library, 5:30 p.m.
As always, visitors are welcome.
Doug Lynch, of Advanced Bionics talked about dealing with hearing loss in basic terms, without limiting the scope to CI’s in general or AB in particular. The group number about 20.
Doug Lynch at MontCo on March 7
Doug has been involved with Advanced Bionics in many capacities since 1995, when he was implanted with the CLARION 1.0 as part of the company’s first clinical trial. He joined Advanced Bionics in 1996 and has served in many capacities including Director, Corporate Communications, and currently serves as the Cochlear Implant Consumer Specialist in the Mid Atlantic. He holds seven U.S. Patents in cochlear implant technology, and has passionately educated families about technology and life with cochlear implants for over twenty years.
Doug provided links to a number of useful web sites for hearing rehabilitation:
www.TheListeningRoom.com (Rehab resources)
|http://www.abmusicrehab.com/EN/ (Music rehab)
https://hearingjourney.com/ (online community of 30,000 people who care about CI’s and hearing loss)
www.audiologyonline.com/expo/advanced-bionics/ (Online recorded webinars, including rehab and others)
http://www.advancedbionics.com/com/en/support/education.html (AB’s website listing of all educational resources)
CART transcript is available on request to hlaamcc(at)gmail(dot)com.
At our April meeting, Dr. Jennifer Raneri of Collegeville Speech and Hearing will speak. Watch here for details of her presentation.
April 4, 2016, 5:30 p.m. at the Jeanes Library.
As always, visitors are welcome.
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The round table meeting attended by a dozen members covered a wide range of topics, but the major items were:
Items in the 15-16 budget
Hearing assistance efforts
Charitable expenditures
Future programs
Advanced Bionics representative in March
Collegeville Speech and Hearing presentation in April
Montgomery County Office of Aging in May
HLAA picnic – July 17 Fort Washington State Park
Recent activities
Farm Show
Center on the Hill Presentation
Experiences with local theater hearing assistance
Other upcoming activities and matters
Lunch & Learn May 7 (Emilio Cortez wll receive
the Finisdore Award for Advocacy)
HLAA Convention in DC – several members will attend.
Chapter business card now available
The group numbered 20 for our Holiday Party. The earlier (5:30 p.m.) starting time seemed to be satisfactory. We all enjoyed contributed and purchased food and drink
We’ll meet in February, having decided to shorten our winter hiatus to just January. We’ll have speaker from the Montgomery County Aging and Adult Services, who will describe the Community Connections “Navicate” program. This should also be an opportunity to make the office more aware of what HLAA has to offer.
Monday, February 1, at 5:30 p.m. at the Jeanes Library.
Dr. Brenner
Gail Brenner, Au.D, described the nature of tinnitus, its history, which spans nearly all of recorded history, and discussed various means of treating it. Many in our audience of 17 deal with it in varying degrees.
Dr. Brenner is an expert in tinnitus and its related conditions, hyperacusis and adult misophonia. She has lectured internationally and taught and mentored doctoral students in the field. She received her clinical doctorate in audiology from the University of Florida and is a fellow of the American Academy of Audiology and a member of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology. Licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Gail has been trained in such state-of-the-art treatments as Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) and Neuromonics.
The presentation will cover the following:
CART transcript is available hlaamcc(at)gmail(dot)com
Our December meeting will be a holiday social event, December 7, 2015.
Watch for details here.
Alison Mendez, Engagement Manager- New York for Cochlear Americas spoke at our October 5 meeting. She is a teacher of the deaf by certification, and has worked with Cochlear for 5 years.
Alison described the Cochlear N6 cochlear implant, and related wireless technology, and Cochlear resources available to recipients. She also described the BAHA device, and the latest developments in hybrid CI technology.
The discussion ranged widely, and attendees brought many questions. Some examples:
Technical difficulties prevented the CART system from working, and no transcript is available.
For our November 2 meeting, Gail Brenner, Au.D, a specialist in tinnitus and sound sensitivity will speak. Many of us have to deal with what we do hear as well as what we don’t hear, and Dr. Brenner has extensive experience in dealing with tinnitus.
Our meeting room has a hearing loop, and CART will be provided. The meeting time is 6:00 to 7:45.
As always, visitors are welcome.
Attendees totaled 18 at this meeting, two weeks later than the usual date. Several visitors were in the group.
This was a round table forum, on a variety of topics, including:
Installed new officer; President Don Groff, VP position is open
Scheduled and proposed meeting topics for the coming year
Activities apart from meetings e.g. a possible theater outing
Possible adjustment of meeting calendar. The notion of starting the meeting at 5 p.m. rather than 6 was favored by many, since starting at 6 puts travel at the peak of rush hour traffic.
Details about the upcoming (10/18) Walk4Hearing were presented. It has been confirmed that registration starts at 10 and the walk starts at 11 a.m. Details at Walk4Hearing
The topic of noisy restaurants , of interest to many was discussed in several major newspaper article, such as the N Y Times and Philadelphia Inquirer.
Our next meeting, October 5, will feature a presentation by Cochlear America.
HLAA - Montgomery County Chapter 