The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Pensioners to protest loss of Hear to Help
Service faces closure if it cannot find £17,000 to pay its annual running costs
Worried pensioners fighting to save Action on Hearing Loss Scotland’s Hear to Help service will march on Forfar town hall tomorrow.
The charity has exhausted all funding options to keep its Hear to Help service going beyond the end of this month.
The gathering outside the full council meeting will express how the closure will impact on the everyday lives of more than 600 people.
A total of £17,000 is needed to secure Hear to Help in Angus for a full year but the charity has been unable to tap into additional funding streams.
After Angus Health and Social Care Partnership rejected an approach for funding in March, the charity submitted another 21 unsuccessful applications to charitable trusts.
Delia Henry, director of Action on Hearing Loss Scotland, said: “The closure of Hear to Help, which can often be the difference between someone persevering with their hearing aids or giving up and leaving them in a drawer, will be a devastating blow for many elderly people with hearing loss who depend on our friendly, accessible, locally-delivered service in communities across Angus.
“We’ve been campaigning to save Hear to Help and despite cross-party support from councillors and MSPs we have been unable to persuade the Integrated Joint Board for Angus Health and Social Care Partnership to grant any funding.
“Our charity’s supporters are gathering to appeal to councillors to make a last-gasp attempt at identifying funding to keep our much-loved service running.”
The volunteers, who have been trained by NHS audiology to clean ear moulds and replace tubing, provide local support in Arbroath, Brechin, Carnoustie, Forfar and Montrose and across other communities in Angus, helping many older people with mobility difficulties to hear more clearly and live independently without the need to travel to hospital.
Hear to Help also offers a range of “added value” information about assistance equipment, such as amplified phones, TV listeners and vibrating/ flashing alarms that can all make life easier for people with hearing loss.
The service was launched with two years of Scottish Government pump prime funding, with the funding to be picked up locally following the conclusion of the initial cash – however, no such funding has not materialised.
Two identical services – in Glasgow and Ayrshire and Arran – are both funded with money from local health and social care partnerships, and the charity believes Hear to Help delivers the vision outlined in the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Delivery Plan for supporting people to selfmanage their conditions in their own communities.
Our charity’s supporters are gathering to appeal to councillors to make a last-gasp attempt at identifying funding to keep our much-loved service running. DELIA HENRY ACTION ON HEARING LOSS SCOTLAND