HLAA – Montgomery County Chapter

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.

•   Rehabilitation – work that pays off
•   Plasticity of the brain: Why time is always on the side of a people with hearing loss
•   Communication is a two way street: Responsibilities of both hearing impaired and loved ones
•   Technology advances and where things are headed.
  

  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

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:

• What IS tinnitus and what it is not- Clarifying the myths.
• Statistics- how many people have tinnitus ?
• What can be done? What management strategies are available today.
• Questions and Answers
• And much more….

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:

• Eligibility for a cochlear implant.
• Performance relative to a hearing aid.
• Resources available for new users
• Backward compatibility
• Reliability records
• Future developments

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.