Fear of after pandemic face to face work

Hearing Loss
#1

hI, I’m a group psychotherapist. We’ve been conducting therapy over MsTeams for the past 2 years and whilst the therapy isn’t the same, it works well enough. I have found it great to be able to turn up the sound on my speakers and I have a nice big screen to see everyone speak. I wear 2 aids and they help a lot.

We ar win the process of planing a return to face to face work and this will mean conducting group therapy in a large echoey room with air con and 10 or so people all sat in a circle wearing face masks.

I’m really anxious about it and struggling to see how I will cope. I need to be able to hear people speaking quietly about awful things and I’m starting to dread not being able to hear well enough.

Has anyone else experienced this ? Any tips ?

I work for the NHS here in England and they are pretty good at making reasonable adjustments if you ask, but I have absolutely no idea what to think of or ask for…

thanks all.

#2

I would think ideal would be to have everybody wear a microphone and have the sound streamed to your hearing aids. How this is accomplished (and the ease of doing it) would depend on what hearing aids you wear.

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#3

In order for therapy to work, they need to be free to be. I could have a central mic on a table in the centre of the room, but would that pick yp conversation from the whole room ? I can turn my aids up on full, but I get feedback (semi closed domes).

#4

Face to face means looking at people’s lips. God help us all when we fear returning to normal

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#5

It’s a community hospital setting and there needs to be some caution. I get that. Am just looking for help with what could make it easier for me (and avoid my patients having to put up with me constantly misunderstanding them).

#6

This sounds like it is only you needing help, not everyone else.
Correct?

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#7

Solutions are seldom ideal. I wouldn’t think it would be very limiting to wear a small microphone either on a lanyard around one’s neck or clipped to clothing. Any imposition they feel may be lessened by you stating this is so you don’t miss anything they have to say. There are also table microphones. For 10 people I would think two or more would need to be networked together. I’m unclear on who you work for. If you work for the NHS, I would think they’d have somebody you could consult.

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#8

Yup, the group are ok, just me.

I absolutely can not ask my patients to have microphones. Will compromise their therapy. I work for the NHS and they are supportive but they do not have any experience in hearing loss and are looking to me to guide them.

#9

You might want to try a transparent face mask for everyone present. They are available in the UK and I’ve seen them online for medical personnel.

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#10

NHS is National Health Service? Don’t they have audiologists? If not, do you have an audiologist?

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#11

I have an NHS audiologist, they provided hearing aids for me. Transparent face masks would be great, but they’d need to meet the required spec. I will look into that. Great idea. thanks :slight_smile:

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#12

If everyone is in a circle a centrally located microphone would possibly help you.
Maybe the NHS could help you with this.

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#13

theclearmask.com sells FDA-cleared and CE-marked clear masks.

Also, is it possible for you to walk over to the patient who’s talking?

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#14

I’ve just checked and there are clear face masks that are NHS approved :slight_smile:

Our therapy is done sitting. A central mic can transmit to my phonak aids I guess ?

I used to struggle a bit before the pandemic but seeing faces helped. Work will provide whatever assistance I need within reason, but is a case of not knowing what options there are.

I’ll ask re the clear face masks and google a mic system that works with my phonak aids. Even a little bit extra clarity would be great, if I turn my aids up to full I get feedback so need to avoid that. Thanks for the help and suggestions everyone, it’s really appreciated. I feel a bit embarrassed at struggling.

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#15

This is the clear mask that is NHS approved :Transparent face mask approved for NHS use - Med-Tech Innovation

#16

@markyB Would this be helpful?

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

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From Mexico: will KS10s work with Profound Hearing Loss?
From Mexico: will KS10s work with Profound Hearing Loss?
#17

I feel your pain. The last two years have been great for my working. Everyone I dealt with verbally was online and using a microphone. Now many are returning to the office, so you have a mix of all in person, or half in person and half on screen; both of which are very challenging.

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#18

Access To Work, may provide some funding, please look at the videos @Baltazard kindly provided above, of different Phonak Assistive Listening Devices, although made for Phonak aids, these ALD’s can be adapted to work with most, but not all hearing aids… Good Luck @markyB, hopefully you will be able to find a suitable solution, which may involve more than one ALD, for the NHS to meet their reasonable adjustments legislation… Cheers Kev :wink:

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#19

l have been to hospitals and doctor’s office and they don’t have the clear mask so an few of them have the face shield instead. l have to keep telling the medical staff to pls lower your mask so l can lip read.

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#20

There is a strange paradox whereby those in the caring professions sometimes need a bit of persuasion to care for some…

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