Reviewing the impact of your deafness

If you have been losing your hearing gradually, you may find that you are no longer gaining much (if any) benefit from your hearing aids and that normal communication at work has become extremely difficult. In fact, you may now have become profoundly deaf and need almost as much help as a suddenly deafened person to keep your job. But if you have not recently received hospital treatment for your deafness and are not in contact with an HT or a SWD, you may not know what services are available to help you locally or further afield.

If this is your situation then here are four suggestions worth considering:

· arrange to see your nearest HT to discuss the issues that concern you at a series of regular sessions. Regular contact with an HT will ensure that you know what services and technical aids are available to help you and will enable you to keep your progress in coping with your deafness under review. Matilda's experience shows what can be achieved;

· consider the advantages of going on a specialised course to examine the problems caused by your deafness with other deafened people. Your HT should be able to tell you if this type of course is available locally. Otherwise, why not go for a week on a residential rehabilitation programme at the LINK Centre for Deafened People in Eastbourne (preferably with your partner or other members of your family who live with you)? This programme will give you a week away from work to review your life in the company of other deafened people and learn how to cope with your deafness more constructively. The case studies of Ronnie and Matilda show how valuable this experience can be. Your employer should give you paid time off to attend the course (see Disability Discrimination Act) and if you work for a large firm, as Matilda has done, your employer may also be prepared to pay your fees for the programme;

· start attending lipreading classes if you are not already doing so. Again Ronnie's experience demonstrates the value of regular attendance at lipreading classes for someone who had apparently managed his communication at work very effectively until he became profoundly deaf. Your employer should allow you paid time off to attend lipreading classes during working hours if you cannot find a class at a suitable time outside working hours (e.g. in the evening. See Disability Discrimination Act);and

· explore the possibility of having a cochlear implant if you have not already done so. Maureen, Tony and Matilda are all examples of gradually deafened people who did not become profoundly deaf until quite late in their working lives; but for all of them having a cochlear implant improved their satisfaction with their work significantly, and in Tony's case helped him to start a new career. On the other hand, some forms of deafness cannot be helped by a cochlear implant. Secondly, implantation is a surgical procedure and, like any other operation, carries some risks. For example, any remaining residual hearing will be destroyed; everything then depends on the hearing conveyed by the cochlear implant being effective. So weigh up carefully the risks and benefits of implantation before deciding whether to proceed.

When you have followed up these suggestions, you will be much better placed to decide what you want to do about your employment.