Lisburn Hearing Centre

028 9264 0302

Lisburn Hearing Centre
Latest News | Introduction Of The Accessible Information Standard

Introduction Of The Accessible Information Standard

Friday, August 5th 2016 12:43pm

On the 1st August 2016 the Accessible Information Standard was launched in the UK which has been received with great delight by charities such as Action on Hearing Loss. This is a welcome step forward for people with hearing issues as it means that all providers of NHS care and publicly funded adult social care have to meet the needs of both the disabled and people who are have some sort of sensory loss to ensure that they are able to communicate effectively when they visit a medical centre or social care facility.

Paul Breckell, who is chief executive at Action on Hearing Loss commented: "This is a welcome step forward for people who are deaf or have a hearing loss. We hope that health and social care professionals will see that far from being a box-ticking exercise, this is a real opportunity to provide better care and better outcomes for patients who have previously faced barriers when accessing health and social care."

Problems revealed by research included people not having any access to online booking of appointments, meaning they had to call in at the medical centre as they could not hear well enough on the phone. Also people missed appointments as they could not hear their name read out in the waiting area. And two thirds of the people who required a British Sign Language interpreter could not get access to one.

In response to this David McCullough who is chief executive at the Royal Voluntary Service commented: "This research proves how vital it is that we normalise hearing loss and hearing aids so older people seek the help they need. There is a worryingly high level of under-diagnosis and as we are living in an ageing society this is a problem that is only going to grow. We believe that the voluntary sector has a role to play in ensuring older people with hearing loss are linked up to services in the community so that no older person is left lonely and isolated."

It is believed there are more than 10 million people in the UK living with hearing loss and this is only going to grow as our population ages. For more on the story above please visit the Care Home UK website at the following link: Prioritising Hearing Loss

Share:

© 2019 Lisburn Hearing Centre | http://www.lisburnhearingcentre.com

www.ctrlcube.com