A self-help organization dedicated to education, advocacy and support for people who do not hear well and those around them.

Mail at P.O. Box 6372 Louisville KY 40206-0372

Visit our website at http://www.hearinglossky.org/

July 2008

July Meeting - Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 6:30

St. Leonard’s Elementary School Library, 440 Zorn Ave., Louisville, KY

(Just South of the VA and North of Brownsboro Road)

Ed Schickel, on behalf of Hearing Loss Association of Kentuckiana, will present a plaque to Norton Healthcare in appreciation of their sponsoring Closed Captioning on WDRB Fox 41 TV. Russell Cox, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of Norton Healthcare will accept the plaque and Bill Lamb, President & General Manager of WDRB Louisville - Fox 41 TV will attend. After the plaque presentation, Erin Schilling, MSW, CSW, will present an Overview of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Program at Seven Counties, an Overview of the dynamics that Hard of Hearing persons face with families, society, Mental Health themes, and will ask for recommendations. Erin is a native of Louisville, KY and had been hard of hearing since birth, becoming deaf at age 21. She has a Bachelors in Social Work from Xavier University, a Masters in Social Work from Gallaudet University and is licensed by Ohio and Kentucky State Social Work Boards. For the past five years, she had worked for non-profit agencies providing Clinical services to Deaf and Hard of Hearing persons and their families. She is currently the Coordinator for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services at Seven Counties Services, Inc. here in Louisville. She also continues to provide individual and family therapy along with coordination. The meeting is free, open to the public and is real time captioned. For more information, contact Ed Schickel at (502) 349-6792 or Ron Haynes at (502) 515-3762.

President’s Message

For those of you who could not attend last months meeting, we had one of the largest turnouts ever for a general meeting with a count of 73 in attendance. Thanks to Ed Schickel for the public relations and for putting the cell phone program together. Also a big thanks to Linda Freiberger for bringing refreshments to the June meeting. Melanie Magruder has volunteered to bring refreshments for July; a volunteer list is available at the refreshment table at each meeting. And speaking of volunteering, our big need for volunteers falls in August during the Kentucky State Fair. Please volunteer as often as possible! Jean will have the Volunteer Sheet at the meeting. For those who have not heard, Bud Smith made a CD of the Christmas Dinner 2007 pictures, please give him a big thank you. We have duplicates of the CD for anyone who would like to have a copy. While I'm thanking people, I want to thank Karen Lichtefeld for taking charge of the July meeting and Ed Schickel for making the plaque presentation. My cochlear implant replacement will not be "turned on" until July 10, so I fear that I wouldn't be able to conduct the meeting as it deserves.

We presently have scheduled presentations for our meetings and activities for the remainder of 2008:

August 12, 2008:

Michelle Niehaus, MSW, LCSW, Statewide Coordinator for Deaf Services Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Substance Abuse, will discuss the efforts being made to improve access to needed mental health care for Kentucky citizens with hearing loss.

September 9, 2008:

Dr. Mark Severtson and Dr Mary Burton on Cochlear Implants including financing thru Medicare and insurance.

September Social:

Picnic at the Ballard Place. Carlene will determine the date and time around the middle of September. Volunteers will be requested to help with details and suggestions.

October 14, 2008:

Jeff Carroll, Outreach Coordinator, with Hamilton Relay will present an in-depth presentation about Hamilton Relay ("HR") services for mostly hard of hearing people, including a presentation on the HR CapTel via the computer with a demo.

October Fundraiser:

Details to come.

November 11, 2008:

Ed Schickel, HLAK Outreach Coordinator, will present Coping with Relationships for the Hard of Hearing.

December Dinner:

Covered Dish Dinner at Lyndon City Hall.

Will You Help Us

Somehow, some way, you discovered HLAK. Perhaps you found us by chance or perhaps you struggled alone for years. Nevertheless, you found friendship, information, and support. We are asking you now, if you have been helped by HLAK in any way, to consider those who have not heard of us. We are asking that you consider all of the Hard of Hearing people in Kentuckiana. We are asking that you support our Kentucky State Fair Outreach.

The Fair will be here in no time and this year it will be Thursday, August 14 through Sunday, August 24. We will be participating in the Health Horizons exhibits with Heuser Hearing Institute, Hamilton Relay and Oticon (hearing devices.) This will give you the opportunity to help educate Kentuckiana about Hard of Hearing issues and resources. Our goal is to help people become aware and open new doors.

We are asking you to volunteer a few hours of your time to man the booth. The 11 days have been broken into 90+ shifts of approximately 3 1/2 hours each. They are 8:45 AM-12:00 PM; 12:00 PM-3:30 PM; 3:30 PM-7:00 PM and 7:00 PM-10:15 PM. Approximately 2/3 of the shifts are available. If you are not on the Kentucky State Fair e-mail list, please contact Jean Haynes (502) 515-3762 to volunteer for a shift or shifts.

You will receive a free fair and parking ticket to cover each day you volunteer. You will have the opportunity before or after your shift to participate in the health screenings and state-of-the-art medical displays as well as plenty of free samples and information in other nearby Health Horizons exhibits. Screenings offered in previous years include: mammograms, oral cancer, skin cancer, eyes, dental sealant, dental fluoride varnish, depression, prostate, sight, back and neck stress, bone density and blood pressure. Also available were eyeglass cleaning, posture, muscle and nerve testing, and blood drives. When the 2008 exhibits are posted you can check them out at http://www.kystatefair.org/special_exhibits/health_horizons/index.html and they will be posted in the August Newsletter.

Hospital/Medical 'Adverse Events' 3 Times Higher Among Those with Communication Problems -

Hearing Industry Resource - June 9, 2008

Preventable adverse events in hospitals occur 3 times more often among patients with communication problems, such as deafness, blindness, psychiatric disorders and multiple health issues or co-morbidities, found researchers in this study of nearly 2400 patient records from 20 hospitals in Quebec.

An adverse event is "an unintended injury or complication caused by the delivery of clinical care rather than by the patient's underlying condition." Preventable adverse events occurred more often in women than in men and in patients over age 65. The most common adverse effects were drug related or caused by inappropriate treatment, treatment delay or failure to monitor a patient's condition.
The researchers found that 57% of patients who experienced a preventable adverse event had prolonged hospital stays (35%), were readmitted to hospital (32%) or discharged with minimal impairment or recovery (10%). A small percentage of patients experienced moderate impairment with recovery in 1 year (5%), experienced permanent impairment (3%) or died (6%).

"Almost half of the events were associated with some level of disability or multiple hospital admissions, with one-third of the patients who experienced preventable adverse events requiring readmission to hospital," write Bartlett and coauthors. "These results emphasize the importance of providing additional resources for these patients to improve patient safety." The researchers urge "it is important for future research to investigate interpersonal dynamics that may be responsible. This research will become critical as the number of adults with disabilities affecting communication increases as the elderly population increases."

In a related commentary, Frankel writes that all patients are at risk of preventable adverse events. Standardized care and simple mechanisms to improve patient understanding - such as clear, jargon free language and having patients repeat instructions back to their care providers - need to be applied vigorously by health care professionals.

Hospital “communications kits" are a good idea for those with hearing loss and can go a long way in bridging the communications gap in an already uneasy environment. Neal Bauman does a nice job is describing 2 of these "kits" on his website:
http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/articles/hospitalkits.htm

AUDIENT is an alliance for accessible hearing care is designed to assist income qualified hard of hearing people nationwide to access quality hearing aids and related care at significantly reduced costs. Visit the website: www.audientalliance.org or call toll free:

1-877-AUDIENT (1-877-283-4368)

Miscellaneous News

Healthy Hearing - June 11, 2008 - Tax Credit Website Delivers 6,500 Support Letters!

In just six weeks since the debut of www.hearingaidtaxcredit.org over 6,500 letters of tax credit support have been sent to Congress! Recent cosponsors Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS) all received letters through the site prior to becoming tax credit supporters, demonstrating the importance of constituent contacts. In addition, the site has generated further grassroots activity highlighted in blogs and letters to the Editor. HIA urges every member to publicize and promote the use of www.hearingaidtaxcredit.org to their employees and customers; there are still millions of letters waiting to be written!

Information on Kentucky and Indiana representatives can be found on our website – www.Hearinglossky.org

Hearing Loss Association supports the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act has transformed the nation since its enactment in 1990. The ADA was intended to protect people with disabilities from discrimination at work and in public life. Unfortunately, over the last decade Supreme and lower court decisions have excluded large groups of people with disabilities from receiving the employment protections. Men and women, veterans, young adults, aging Americans – the backbone of communities and families – are caught in a Catch-22 and are often treated as "too disabled" to work but ruled "not disabled enough" to be qualified for equal rights under the ADA. Further, these judicial restrictions block people with conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cancer, heart disease and bipolar disorder – those whom Congress clearly intended to protect under the ADA in 1990 – from seeking protections against employment discrimination under the ADA. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 will re-establish these protections.

On Wednesday, June 18, the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Judiciary Committee substituted the proposed language crafted by the disability and employer community for the original language, and passed the bills out of committee by over-whelming vote. The House Judiciary Committee was unanimous in its support for the bill as amended (27-0), and the Education and Labor Committee passed it 43-1. Only Representative Tom Price (R-GA) opposed the bill in committee.

Hearing Loss Association supports the bill as amended. Employment issues are a real concern to people with hearing loss. We want to see people with hearing loss get the accommodations they need to get the job and to stay on the job. We believe this bill will help make
that happen.

We urge you to write your representative today in support of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008.

Information on Kentucky and Indiana representatives can be found on our website – www.Hearinglossky.org

HLAA sends letters in support of the 21st Century Communications and Video Access
Hearing Loss Association faxed letters today in support of HR 6320 to all the members of the House of Representative's Energy and
Commerce Committee. We need to encourage all our Representatives in Congress to support this bill before the July 4 Recess. Please send out letters to your local representative. Feel free to use the HLAA letters as models.

Information on Kentucky and Indiana representatives can be found on our website – www.Hearinglossky.org
A sample of our letters is below -

Dear Representative Xyzzzzz:
The Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) urges you to Support HR 6320, the 21st Century Communications & Video Accessibility Act of 2008.

The Hearing Loss Association of America is the largest consumer membership organization for people with hearing loss in the United States. Our mission is to open the world of communication for people with hearing loss through information, education, advocacy and support. We are just one of the over 200 members of the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) which supports HR 6320.

There are some 31 million Americans with a hearing loss. We need this bill so that people with hearing loss as well as those with
vision loss will not be left behind as technologies continue to advance in the digital age. We find the provisions of the bill will help people with hearing and vision losses, including: ensuring that as television broadcasts migrate to the Internet captioning is not hit or miss but is a standard feature on computers and portable devices that would otherwise not receive captions; and, provide interfaces like a closed captioning button on the remote and voice activated menus for people who are blind so that we don't have to fumble for information in an emergency.

In short, people with hearing and vision losses want to have the same kind of access to video programming and communications as everyone else. HLAA has heard from younger people around the country with hearing losses that worry that they won't have access to the kind of technologies they take for granted now. This bill offers the possibility of a future where people with disabilities will be able to enjoy full access to those digital technologies we depend on so much both at work and at home.

We appreciate all the work you have done for people with disabilities. Thank you!
Sincerely,

Your Name

Real Time Writers Training

If you get the enews or visited the HLAA website recently, you've seen we are making a push to support training for real-time writers.
Visit the home page of the HLAA website to link to a sample letter you can make your own. Or, visit the NCRA website where they have
created a quick and easy form letter that goes directly to your representative. Either way, we urge leaders to send their own letters and encourage members to support this effort.

Below is an update from NCRA:

The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are currently reconciling the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007
(H.R. 4137, S. 1642), better known as the Higher Education Reauthorization Act. This bill includes language put forward by the National Court Reporters Association to create a competitive grant program to train real-time writers to provide captioned information and communication access for the 30 million Americans who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. Through this legislation, we hope to dramatically increase the number of qualified broadcast captioners and Communication Access Real-time Translation (CART) providers. But to make this a reality, we need your help. Please take a few minutes to urge your Senators and Representative to vote for the Higher Education Reauthorization Act and maintain the language creating a program to train more real-time writers by clicking on the link below:
<http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=ncra&hotissue=27>
http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=ncra&hotissue=27

Information on Kentucky and Indiana representatives can be found on our website – www.Hearinglossky.org

Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA)

HLAA, headquartered in Bethesda MD, is the nation’s largest organization for people with hearing loss. The HLAA exists to open the world of communication for people with hearing loss through information, education, advocacy and support. HLAA is a 501c3 non-profit corporation and offers tax exempt status to all local affiliates.

Want to Join Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA)?

You can join HLAA online at www.hearingloss.org (click on Join/Membership). If you prefer, you can get the form online or at a HLAK meeting and mail it in. Annual membership dues effective March 1, 2008 $35 individual, $40 family, $20 student, $60 professional, $50 non-profit and $150 corporate.

Hearing Loss Association of Kentuckiana (HLAK)

HLAK is the local Kentucky/Indiana chapter located in Louisville, which is an affiliate of HLAA. Meetings of HLAK are free, open to the public, and take place at 6:30 P.M. on the second Tuesday of the month at St. Leonard Elementary School Library, 440 Zorn Ave. Occasionally we meet at other places or at other times for different activities; any changes will be found in this newsletter. Real time captioning is used at the meetings.

Want to Join Hearing Loss Association of Kentuckiana (HLAK)?

No dues are required for membership in HLAK; however national membership is encouraged. Donations and participation in chapter activities are encouraged. Holding an office, committee chair or having voting privileges require national membership. If you would like to be added to the free HLAK list serve, to receive periodic email on hard-of-hearing issues, contact Paula Esterle paulaesterle@insightbb.com or 502-339-8037.

For information contact an HLA-Kentuckiana officer:

President: Ron Haynes ronhaynes@insightbb.com

or write to Ron at P.O. Box 6372, Louisville KY 40206-0372

Vice President: Karen Lichtefeld kalich@bellsouth.net

Secretary: Marilyn Fenwick merdle43@yahoo.com

Treasurer: Carlene Ballard CarleneBallard@bellsouth.net

Historian: Paula Esterle paulaesterle@insightbb.com

or 502-339-8037

Outreach Coordinator: Ed Schickel schickel@bardstown.com

or (502) 349-6792

Newsletter Editor: Pat Flaherty patif50@insightbb.com

Professional advisor: Barbara Eisenmenger