Community Support Volunteers
If you ever have difficulties with your hearing, you do not have to face them alone.
Our team of community support volunteers will provide you with peer support, through visits, email or letters, to provide personal and practical advice both to you and, where relevant, your relatives, close friends or colleagues. They understand from their own personal experience what it is like to live with hearing loss and they provide advice about local and national services and support that can make your life easier.
Marc’s story
“I found Hearing Link through a web search when I was at my lowest point, feeling depressed and isolated. I thought Hearing Link would just be another dead end, but with the support of my family and friends I agreed to contact them. Thank God I did! I emailed Hearing Link and just poured my heart out.
“I was assigned two Community Support Volunteers. One of the volunteers, Mark, had been through a similar experience to me, and the other, Martin, understood straight away my concerns about a cochlear implant, something that my audiologist had recently suggested. It was a ‘lightbulb’ moment to realise I was not the only one struggling with hearing loss. At last I was meeting people who understood what I was going through. Mark and Martin helped me stand up and say, ‘Yes I am deaf, but my life is about much more than being deaf; I am worth more than that’.
“Just the act of reaching out, taking that one step to contact Hearing Link, was all it took to turn my slowly shrinking world into one of joy and laughter again. The funny thing is, having reached out for help, I have met more deaf and hard of hearing people in the last few months than in 18 years. Talking to them and sharing experiences has been really helpful.
“I had spent years trying to cope alone and it wore me down. But the Community Support Volunteers at Hearing Link helped me realise that I wasn’t alone in the silence. They gave me back my confidence, my drive and kept me in the world of work when I was at a point of giving up completely.”
How to get in touch
Our community support volunteers service is provided by Hearing Link, which is part of Hearing Dogs.
To discuss your needs and to find a community support volunteer near you, please get in touch by:
Email: helpdesk@hearinglink.org
Phone: 07526 123255 (call or text)