ISSUE 12

Autumn/Winter 2015

ISSUE 12

CHRISTMAS CAROL CONCERTS

This year Nugent Care’s Carol concerts are in aid of homeless people :-

Friday 4th December 7.30pm:

SS Peter & Paul Church, Liverpool Road, Crosby L25 5TE

Featuring:

Great Crosby Catholic Primary School Choir, Holy Family Catholic High School Choir

and Liverpool Voice

Saturday 12th December 7.30pm:

Our Lady of the Annunciation Church Bishop Eton, Woolton Road, Liverpool, L16 8NQ

Featuring:

St. Austin’s Catholic Primary School Choir, New Era, plus other special guests

Come and join us and sing some of your favourite Christmas carols.

Ticket price: Adult £5, children free (inclusive of refreshments)

Proceeds from this concert will support people living in

poverty.

There will be a raffle and a stall selling Christmas decorations

during the interval.

The “Hear Here” Team wishes all our readers a Happy, Healthy,

Peaceful Christmas & Best Wishes for 2016

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ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

TATTON PARK TRIP

Lipreading class members from Southport, Formby and Liverpool went on a coach trip to

Tatton Park. The weather held out for us and a good time was had by all.

The house was as beautiful as ever

and the gardens were in full bloom.

You cannot beat a bit of English

heritage on a lovely summer’s day.

There were several cafes to

choose from and some members

did partake in all of them, as it

would have been rude not to !

The cream tea looked delicious.

Some members used the free mobility scooters around the gardens and the staff were

very helpful with their instructions and guidance. The gardens are a must see attraction

at Tatton anytime of the year.

During the summer, Tatton Park had an exhibition

of the work of Cristina Rodrigues which we were

able to view on the day. Cristina is a Portuguese

artist who has made her home in Manchester.

The exhibition was called 'Guardian Angels.' The

pieces were said to reflect her Portuguese origins

but also her own integration into the British

culture. Cristina’s art celebrates the role of women

in society, across different cultures and tells their

combined stories.

We are hoping to put on another trip in early March 2016.

If you have any suggestions please mention them to a “Hear Here” member of staff.

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END OF TERM LUNCHES

ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

In July, the Formby group descended on Formby Hall & Golf Club which is set in

beautiful grounds and has a lovely formal dining room so we were on our best behaviour.

Brie, Mary's hearing dog, naturally

was the best behaved! She is a real

PR dog getting lots of pats and

attention wherever she goes with

Mary. Other groups there were most

interested in Brie. She is a real

ambassador for Hearing Dogs.

Our meals were delicious and we all

agreed it had been a lovely venue.

Joyce Trueman Not to be outdone, the Old Swan

group went to The Adelphi Hotel for

their end of term lunch. They had a

three course carvery. The staff

arranged a quiet area and were very

helpful on the day - ‘thank you’!

These lunch outings arranged by

Louise give us all a chance to get to

know each other better and it is wonderful to enjoy a meal where everyone gives each

other the opportunity to speak and lipread. Bring on more social events, Louise !

Some of you will remember Philip Graves from our Old

Swan Lipreading group. He now lives in Formby.

He had a significant birthday recently, he was 50

years young in October.

Love and best wishes from all your ‘old’ friends in the

Old Swan Lipreading Group

Philip with Eileen, Louise and Anne, taken during the celebration meal with Philip’s family.

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY PHILIP !

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ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

LIVERPOOL EMPIRE ‘ACCESS FOR ALL’

Liverpool’s Empire Theatre held an “Access for

All” Open Evening in the theatre’s circle bar on

the evening of Monday 20th July. Alison,

Louise, Graham and I attended the event.

The theatre’s disability officer opened the

proceedings. She told us about her role and

introduced the people who describe and

interpret stage performance. They gave

presentations about audio description,

captioning and signing. All methods are designed to give access to live performances

for those who are blind, visually impaired, Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing.

Audio description is a verbal commentary for the blind or visually impaired, which

describes what is happening on stage. This description will include the scenery,

dress, facial expressions and actions. The audience listens through a headset or

earpiece. Touch tours may also be available for audio described performances.

The BSL interpreter for Deaf people, described how he signs the words spoken and

sung by the actors. The interpreter usually stands at the side of the stage. He

signed and spoke throughout his presentation which included visual expression.

The captioner described how he would prepare the captions in advance and cue them

live at a performance. He is likely to know the production very well. The captions are

similar to television subtitles and give Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people

access to a live performance. When making a booking it is necessary to check where

to sit in order to have a good view of the captions.

There is also an infrared sound amplification system at the theatre. The theatre

provides neck loops for the use of hard of hearing people.

We were shown a stage show on a small screen to see, hear and watch the

transcribers and interpreters at work all at the same time! They were very

professional, well trained and entertaining. It was fascinating to see how they were

able to combine different forms of communication in such detail.

We then split into groups and fed back our thoughts. There was then an opportunity

to have a look around other parts of the theatre whilst ‘out of hours’. The evening

was very useful and there will be further meetings to ensure the accessibility needs

of theatre-goers are met.

Val Eden

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Autumn/Winter ISSUE 12

Chris and Peter from MSDP were guest speakers at

the Old Swan class in October. This was a very

informative talk on the referral and assessment

process for specialist equipment. Specialist

equipment can make a huge difference to those

living with a hearing loss.

Merseyside Society for Deaf People exists to

promote and advance the quality of life for all

D/deaf, Deaf Blind and Hard of Hearing people.

The Society exists as a guiding hand to support and promote independent living and

access to services.

For further details please contact MSDP :

Phone (Voice or minicom): 0151 228 0888

Email: reception@msdp.org.uk Fax: 0151 228 6021

Find us at our Head Office: 3TC House, 16, Crosby Road North

Waterloo L22 0NY

We are very pleased to be able to

offer exercise sessions for our

members and others with a hearing

loss.

The sessions are chair based and

suitable for most people.

The sessions will start in the New Year

(date to be confirmed).

Please contact Clare for more information (contact details on page 12).

A short health check will be undertaken to ensure suitability before commencing.

We offer our sincere condolences to the families of Dorothy

McGauley and Sylvia Jackson who passed away recently.

They were visited by “Hear Here” Volunteer Visitors in the

Southport area.

MSDP VISIT OLD SWAN CLASS

COMING SOON ! CHAIR BASED EXERCISES

CONDOLENCES

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ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

HEARING LINK “HEAR & NOW” EVENT

A large group from “Hear Here” attended this event in “The Devonshire Hotel &

Conference Centre” Liverpool. All the professional speakers were superb.

Helen Dowber from “Resound” brought

us up to date on the research they are

doing to improve hearing aids by

suppressing feedback to give clearer

quieter sounds, free of the noises

surrounding the listener and cutting out

whistling.

She highlighted that Skype allows lipreading and improves communication.

Smart phones and Bluetooth can be linked to hearing aid systems and this can make it

possible to personalise sound input.

Laura Arends from “Stagetext” said they are encouraging theatres and cinemas (even

museums and conferences) to install equipment which makes it possible to follow what

is happening on the stage/screen. (A later speaker highlighted it was essential for each

actor to have a microphone as central microphones would not work satisfactorily).

During the lunch break I told her about the sub-titled films shown by the Mount

Pleasant pub in Southport and she will follow this up - the pub may get more people for

lunch if they provide subtitled films - Southport trendsetting!

Gaynor Chittick reported on the

special developments at Aintree

Hospital Audiology. Awareness

courses have been held so that

nurses can test hearing aids, fit

new batteries and insert the aids

when a patient is unable to do this

themselves.

Every nurse and doctor is now

trained in this way.

Vibrating devices alert people

when it is their turn at

Outpatient clinics.

Clinics have loop systems and wards have bedhead notices for patients which include

details of hearing needs. Each ward has a deaf ‘champion’ who knows how to arrange

language interpreters.

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ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

HEARING LINK “HEAR & NOW” EVENT

Dave Barratt on the BT stand had a lot of enquiries about specialist equipment and gave

lots of tips on best phone reception, T-switches, hands-free systems, cordless phones,

on-line chat “Livechat”, “Next Generation Text” - an app direct giving speech text links

see http://ngts.org/uk

Dave suggested before buying equipment, ask to try it or borrow from friends, ask

around and find out what helps other people.

Nicola Robinson from “Cochlear” described how cochlear implants work. No longer is it

necessary to be profoundly deaf to be considered for a cochlear implant as they

endeavour to see that each person receives the best equipment for their personal

circumstances. They also teach people how to cope with tinnitus and balance

problems. New users have a three month assessment period to give a good

diagnosis. Though expectations must be realistic, family support and understanding will

assist towards a successful outcome. Contact with other users is very

helpful. www.cochlear.com

The final speaker was Lyndon Thomas who said each person needed to work out what

they found difficult or impossible e.g. hearing a sat. nav., a passenger in the car, TV, in

restaurants, in a crowd. Then they should ask audiologists what was available to solve

these problems.

Manufacturers will supply detailed answers to questions and tell people where equipment

is available.

Sheryl, the “Speech to Text” reporter was outstanding typing everything that was being

said. It must be VERY difficult to do this so rapidly. One speaker mentioned Ernest

Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer and it came up as ‘Ant Ark Tick’ - this was probably

her only anomaly all day — I thought she was brilliant !

I am grateful to “Hearing Link” for running the Conference, bringing in organisations to

answer questions and supplying lunch, tea and coffee.

There were some practical problems around the use of microphones, neck loops, video

sound quality and timings and our comments were fed back to “Hearing Link”.

June Hobley

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ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

THIS AND THAT

Tea dances at the Atkinson Gallery Southport

16th November 2015

14th December 2015

18th January 2016

Dancing 1.30pm to 4.00pm, entrance price £2.00.

Refreshments are available to buy throughout the

afternoon.

Free Subtitled Films

The Mount Films continue to be popular - different subtitled films every Thursday at

2.30pm. Recent films have included A Royal Night Out, Woman in

Gold, The Choir, Mr Holmes, Jurassic World, Danny Collins and

Spy. There will be a Christmas Lunch available nearer Christmas

but you need to book early as the food is good home cooked food

at reasonable prices.

For updated information on films contact: The Mount Pleasant,

107 Manchester Road, Southport, 01704 514131. Details are also

available on Southport Hear Here Facebook page and displayed in

the Southport office.

Coffee Mornings

Lipreading members met up at the Atkinson Gallery for coffee and a chat

during the summer holidays, it gave members a chat to still get out on a

Tuesday and keep in contact with other members.

Monthly Meals

The monthly meals are back up and running, a favourite haunt of the

members is the Old Ship Inn on Eastbank Street, Southport.

The food is good with 3 courses for £5.00 - a bargain!

The portions are not huge but with 3 courses who wants huge

portions? The Mount on Manchester Road also often does meals

which usually coincide with a good film to follow. The time to eat is

usually 1pm. For updates places contact: Alison 07717 788457

The Computer Club

The computer club continues usually on the 3rd Wednesday of the

month at 1.30pm to 3.00pm. They are always busy putting the world

to rights, chatting and laughing so the time flies by. The next

computer club is on 18th November 2015. So if you have a computer

problem that you would like sorting out, come along with your tablet,

phone or laptop and see if they can help you.

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ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

The new term of classes started in September and they are as popular as ever!

Following the retirement of Angela Jackson and Annie, the St Helens lipreading classes

have moved to Thursdays and are delivered by Alison Wareing.

Angela, her husband Alan and Annie are hoping to join the St Helens group for their

Christmas get together. A little note from Angela and Annie:-

“Annie is really missing everyone. ......and the extra fuss she got! I miss everyone too, but mostly not being at work.”.

Angela with the “Hear Here” Team Annie (Angela’s Hearing Dog) Clare, Alison, Graham and Louise

LIPREADING CLASS VENUES

Each term is 10 weeks (2 hours per week) and classes are held as follows:

St Oswald’s Presbytery Old Swan : Wednesday mornings 10.00 am to 12.00 noon

Chain Lane Comm. Ctr. St Helens : Thursday mornings 10.00 am to 12.00 noon

Chain Lane Comm. Ctr. St Helens : Thursday afternoons 1.15 pm to 3.15 pm

United Reformed Church Formby : Tuesday mornings 10.30 am to 12.30 pm

“Hear Here” Stanley St. Southport : Tuesday mornings 10.15 am to 12.15 pm

“Hear Here” Stanley St. Southport : Tuesday afternoons 1.15 pm to 3.15 pm

Donations are welcomed to support the work of the “Hear Here” Project

Interested ? In the first instance please contact Graham Maher (Project Leader) on

0151 261 2051 direct line, Mobile 07717 788458, or email GMaher@nugentcare.org

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ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

SUPPORT GROUPS

Aintree Tinnitus Support Group Meetings

Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month in Room 2.07 of the Clinical

Science Centre, Aintree University Hospital. The meetings start at 6 pm and finish at

7.30 pm. (no meeting in January or August). For enquiries: 0151 529 0328

Aintree Cochlear Implant Support Group Meetings

Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month in Room 2.07 of the Clinical

Science Centre, Aintree University Hospital. The meetings start at 1pm and finish at

3pm (no meeting in January or August). For enquiries: 0151 529 0328

Aintree Basic Hearing Aid Maintenance Course

Meetings are held on the last Friday morning of each month at 9.30am. The course

covers basic maintenance such as re-tubing ear moulds, fault finding and hygiene

The course starts at 9:30am. For enquiries: 0151 529 0328

Aintree Balance Support Group

Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month from 2:15pm to 4pm in the

physiotherapy dept, (gym 1) UHA at Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

(no meeting in January or August). For enquiries: 0151 529 0328

St Helens Deafness Resource Centre Tinnitus Support Group

First Wednesday of each month from 10.00am -12 noon

32-40 Dentons Green Lane, St Helens, WA10 2QB

For enquiries: 01744 23887

angela.edwards@deafnessresourcecentre.org

Widnes Tinnitus Support Group

Future dates not yet decided

Runneymede Court, William St, Widnes, WA8 6RN

For enquiries: 01744 23887 Mavis Lewin

www.deafnessresourcecentre.org

Runcorn Tinnitus Support Group

Future dates not yet decided

Hanover Court, Palacefields Ave, Runcorn, WA7 6EJ

For enquiries: 01744 23887 Mavis Lewin

www.deafnessresourcecentre.org

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ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

CAPTIONED THEATRE PERFORMANCES

Liverpool Empire Theatre

0844 871 7677; email: liverpoolgroups@theambassadors.com

www.atgtickets.com/venues/liverpool-empire

Shrek the Musical Thursday 3rd Dec 2015 7.00pm

Dick Whittington Tuesday 29th Dec 2015 7.00pm

The Body Guard Monday 2nd May 2016 7.30pm

Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Theatres

0151 709 4776; email: access@everymanplayhouse.com

www.everymanplayhouse.com

Haunting of Hill House Thursday 7th January 2016 7.30pm

Rapunzel Saturday 16th January 2016 1.30pm

Manchester Palace Theatre

0161 245 6605; email: manchesteraccess@theambassadors.com

www.atgtickets.com/venues/palace-theatre-manchester

The Bodyguard Wednesday 30th December 2015 7.30pm

Royal Exchange Theatre—Manchester

0161 833 9833; email: box.office@royalexchange.co.uk

www.royalexchange.co.uk/page.aspx

Pomona Thursday 19th Nov 2015 7.30pm

Into the Woods Tuesday 5th Jan 2016 7.30pm

Wit Thursday 11th Feb 2016 7.30pm

The Lowry

0843 208 6000; email: boxofficeadmin@thelowry.com

www.thelowry.com

The Sound of Music Tuesday 22nd December 2015 7.30pm

The Girls Friday 29th January 2016 7.30pm

Shrek the Musical Thursday 11th February 2016 7.00pm

How to check out the subtitled films available in your area each week:-

Go to www.yourlocalcinema.com Click on ‘subtitled’ films rather than audio described.

Scroll all the way down (past the London areas) to select your region

(Liverpool or Southport etc.)

The information for each cinema in your region will be there i.e. which film … on which day

… at which time. This site also provides subtitled trailers !

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ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter

You can contact the team members at:

23a Stanley Street, Southport, PR9 0BS :

Alison Wareing: Project Worker & Lipreading Tutor

Tel: 01704 534102, Mobile: 07717 788457, Email: awareing@nugentcare.org

Louise Cantwell: Project Worker & Lipreading Tutor

Mobile: 07717 788456 (text only), Email: LCantwell@nugentcare.org

Clare Daly: Volunteer Co-ordinator

Tel: 01704 539927, Mobile: 07920 078194, Email: CDaly@nugentcare.org

Nugent Care Head Office, 99 Edge Lane, Liverpool L7 2PE :

Graham Maher: Project Leader

Tel: 0151 261 2051, Mobile: 07717 788458, Email: GMaher@nugentcare.org

NUGENT CARE’S ‘LIGHT UP A LIFE’ SERVICE

Nugent Care’s annual “Light Up a Life” service will take place at the

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral on Wednesday 16th December at

12.30 midday led by Bishop Tom Williams (followed by refreshments).

Everyone who dedicates a light will receive a star at the service to

write a personal message. The star will be placed on the tree in

memory of their loved one and their name will be entered into our

book of remembrance which will be displayed at the Liverpool

Metropolitan Cathedral over Christmas and the New Year.

See a member of the “Hear Here” Team for a booking form (suggested donation £5).

Formby : 8th December The Pinewoods

Southport : 8th December Auberge

Liverpool : 9th December Dobbies Speke

St Helens : 10th December The Waterside

Volunteers : To be decided Dobbies Southport

Many thanks to all our members for the help

received with refreshments and for all your

donations which help to keep the project going.

LIPREADING GROUPS CHRISTMAS LUNCHES 2015

THE “HEAR HERE” PROJECT TEAM