Jewish Care currently has 9 care homes in London. Engage has been working with Jewish Care since the project was founded over seven years ago. The aim has always been to reach as many staff as possible at all different levels, i.e. care workers as well as staff from hospitality and other areas.
The method involved identifying issues that were disempowering to residents living with hearing loss and sharing the findings from our assessments and audits. This enabled managers in each home to develop smart action plans including reducing noise levels in communal areas, improving lighting, putting policies and protocols around hearing loss and hearing aids in place, and introducing equipment such as the Mino (handheld amplifying device) as appropriate.
Engage ran two-hour experiential training sessions in all the homes to fit in with staff availability. As more and more staff attended the training, the awareness of hearing loss grew, and staff became more confident. This was backed up by protocols being put in place so that there were agreed ways of supporting residents with hearing aids. Care plans became more robust and reflected the psychological and social impacts of hearing loss on residents.
Over the pandemic and lockdowns, Engage continued to work flexibly to support staff and residents. During this time, the need was highlighted for some key staff to have a higher level of skills, including retubing hearing aids. Since then, we have trained Hearing Loss Champions in every Jewish Care home, thereby ensuring that problems are identified quickly and basic hearing aid maintenance is performed immediately, avoiding what would be lengthy delays waiting for audiological services.
