• WHO WE ARE
• SERVICES
  • Bilingual Health Advocacy
    • Advocacy Link
  • Diabetes
    • Diabetes Education
    • Diabetes Befriending Project
  • Maternity and Children’s Health
    • Antenatal Education
    • Breastfeeding Welcome Scheme
  • Audiology
  • Health in old age
    • Older Somali Women's Project
    • Somali Elder's Health Project
• RESEARCH
• WORKING WITH US
• CONTACT

Services

Audiology

The Bengali Children’s Hearing Project was established in 1997 to provide a vital link between the high number of Bengali parents of children diagnosed with hearing needs and THPCT audiology services. WHFS has seen a significant increase in the Bengali parent’s understanding of hearing loss since the start of the project. There has also been a large reduction in the number of parents not keeping appointments due to the supportive relationship the worker has been able to develop with families.

“I feel the community needs somebody to advocate for them. I have a close relationship with the parents because when a child is diagnosed with hearing loss it is distressing and the parents have lots of questions which they might feel shy to ask the doctor about so sometimes they ask me for information. They contact me if their child needs an appointment or if they think their child’s hearing is getting worse, they can contact me at any time.”

Disability can be a hard experience for people to come to terms with but a change of attitude in the Bengali community is happening. Families can see that children with hearing needs can succeed at school and in the workplace. A key element of parenting is communication and when this is challenged families need to develop other ways of communicating such as British Sign Language and lip reading.

‘As soon as the children are diagnosed with hearing loss and given treatment it is their chance for improvement and with parent’s support and our support the child can do a lot. Before the parents thought oh no, this child is not hearing, they can’t do anything, but now they think differently. We give them lots of examples and I say look I am seeing so many children and those children are getting treatment at the right time, getting your support and our support and they are really doing well. So now they understand that hearing loss is not the end of the child’s life and with the right support and if they use all the services they can do it.’’ (Parveen Quader - WHFS Development Worker for the Bengali Children’s Hearing Project)

Click here to find out more