Who can get support…
- Anyone living in the Bradford Metropolitan District aged 16 – 65 years who is deaf, partially deaf, hard of hearing or deaf blind
- If you live or work with someone who is experiencing difficulties due to deafness or hearing loss, we can provide information and advice.
What type of support can I get ?
Advice from a social worker
A social worker may be able to give you support and advice to assist you with personal difficulties. This may include support with life skills, help to live with a hearing loss, access to specialist equipment, help in crisis situations and access to the British Sign Language Interpreting Service.
This could mean using one of the services below:
British Sign Language Interpreting Service
This is an independent and confidential service.
British Sign Language interpreters, communicators, lip speakers and speech-to-text typists can be booked by contacting the service using the Get in Touch link below.
They can help you communicate in a wide range of areas, e.g. medical, legal and employment situations.
There is a charge for this service to organisations.
Please note: There is a national shortage of professionally qualified staff so pre-booking up to 4 weeks in advance is recommended.
The Deaf Independence Project
A service for deaf people with additional difficulties (e.g. learning disabilities), it provides support in life skills and communication.
Creating Easier Communication
A service for people who are hard of hearing or deafened, (sudden loss of all or most of their hearing) enabling them to develop skills to live with their hearing loss.
The Guide Support Service
A service for people who have both a hearing and a visual impairment who wish to stay as independent as possible in their own homes. For example, we may provide someone to go to the doctor with them to make sure they can understand the information given to them about their medical treatment, or to the shops so they can do their own shopping.
Equipment Provision
We can provide specialist equipment to help people to be independent in their daily lives, e.g. loud and flashing doorbells, vibrating smoke detectors, flashing and vibrating baby alarms and equipment to help with listening to the television. You can try these out in our Resource Room.
Here are some examples of how we can help:
Sonya
Sonya is 25 years old; she is deaf with some sight loss and mild learning difficulties. She lives at home with her parents and brothers and sister and wants to be more independent.
A social worker spent some time with Sonya and her parents talking about what she could do, what she would like to do and what her family’s needs were. This helped to work out the type of support Sonya needed.
With Sonya’s and her parents’ agreement, she started attending the Deaf Independence Project where she was helped to learn new skills -- cooking, communication, travelling independently, shopping and handling money.
The social worker also arranged for Sonya to spend some time away from home for a break , to give both Sonya and her parents some time to themselves.
Our technical officer provided Sonya with a vibrating alarm clock, a flashing door bell and a vibrating and flashing smoke detector.
The social worker helped her claim benefits such as the Disability Living Allowance.
Sonya has been able to develop new skills and is now on a training course with the local college with plans to find work in the future. She is now much more independent.
Mohammed
Mohammed is 46 and lives at home with his parents and brothers and sisters. He is deaf and has an illness which is slowly getting worse. This affects his ability to look after himself and to go out alone.
Mohammed discussed his needs with a social worker: what he found difficult, what he needed help with and what he would like to do. Together they agreed that he needed support with his personal care (washing, showering, shaving, dressing etc) and to be able to go out without being dependent on his family.
The social worker arranged for Mohammed to receive Direct Payments, a sum of money given directly to him to pay for a personal assistant to attend to his care needs and accompany him when he went out. This is an alternative to Home Care and means that Mohammed can have some choice in who helps him, the type of help he gets and at what times.
How do you get support?
If you think that you (or someone you know) would benefit from these services, please contact us. You can do this whether it is the first time you have needed help or whether you are already known to us.
Telephone us, or call in at the Centre (but please do ring first to make sure someone is here to see you).
