JULY UPDATE FROM HEARING HELP ESSEX
1ST JULY 2020

Hearing Help Essex is committed to ensuring that we keep our clients, volunteers and staff as safe as possible during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over 500 individuals access our face to face services each month, and many of our Clients are considered to be in a vulnerable group identified by the World Health Organisation. Therefore, in March, we had to take the difficult decision to cancel our drop-in sessions, home visits, and All Ears events until further notice.

Please be reassured that we continue to closely monitor the Public Health authorities guidance to ensure that we keep our service users, volunteers, and staff safe.

We have now begun to assess and plan when and how we can begin to safely resume our services. Whilst we do not yet have a set timeframe for all stages of our plan, we do know that our walk-in services will not be able to operate in the same way, and instead we will move to an appointment based service delivery model.

We are now ready to book appointments for NHS Hearing Aid Cleaning and Re-tubing at our Resource Centre in Central Chelmsford. From Monday 6th July 2020 we are able to resume our NHS Hearing Aid Support Service for Patients with hearing aids issued by Addenbrooke’s, Basildon, Orsett, Broomfield, St Peter’s, Braintree, & St Margaret’s Epping.

Due to the virus situation we cannot resume our Hearing Help Sessions at our venues in the community just yet, but the good news is we’re able to offer appointments Monday – Friday 9.15am – 15.45pm at our Resource Centre on Moulsham Street in central Chelmsford. We have recently moved to larger premises with parking nearby, enabling us to adhere to the 2 metre social distancing rule at all times.

Please contact us on info@hearinghelpessex.org.uk if you would like an appointment for NHS Hearing Aid re-tubing, cleaning, and basic maintenance at the Resource Centre with the following details.

• Full name, address, date of birth, telephone number
• Preferred day & time of appointment
• How many hearing aid/s
• Type of aid – mould made to fit your ear or Open Fit (small dome in the ear)
• Hospital where aid/s issued
• Reason for requesting an appointment
  
  If you would prefer to call us to discuss our telephone number is 01245 496347. Our phone lines are quite busy at the moment so the quickest way to contact us is via email. Please note that we expect these appointments to book up quite quickly so they will be offered on a first come, first serve basis.

If you think your hearing needs testing, or if your hearing aids need adjusting, or you need an ear mould etc please do contact your hospital Audiology department direct to discuss this.

As usual, our service remains completely free of charge to access, but as a small charity working hard to support residents of Essex living with hearing loss, all donations are appreciated.

As we are not yet resuming our sessions in the community, if you would like to be contacted when we are ready to start booking appointments for these please call or email us so that we can add you to our waiting list. Alternatively, if you visit the ‘Contact’ page on our website you can fill in the pop up form on there to be added to our mailing list. We hope to be able to offer appointments in a variety of locations around the County, as well as doorstep home visits to those who are shielding or housebound, providing NHS Hearing Aid Support,  and our Information, Advice, and Guidance Service in the not too distant future.

Further updates will be posted on our website www.hearinghelpessex.org.uk and also on our social media channels.

WE CONTINUE TO PROVIDE A TELEPHONE, TEXT, EMAIL, LIVE CHAT, AND SOCIAL MEDIA INFORMATION, ADVICE, AND GUIDANCE SERVICE TO THOSE IN NEED.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, OR REQUIRE ADVICE ABOUT MANAGING YOUR HEARING LOSS, OR HEARING AID MAINTENANCE, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT OUR TEAM.

PHONE: 01245 496347
TEXT: 07950 406 173
EMAIL: INFO@HEARINGHELPESSEX.ORG.UK
WEBSITE: WWW.HEARINGHELPESSEX.ORG.UK