Engage uses person-centred and relationship focused approaches that are integrated into the culture and policies of the care organisation, supporting and enabling long-term change.
An integral part of the project is to ensure care staff know how to assist people who wear hearing aids to maintain and use them effectively. It is equally important that teams recognise the needs of the many residents who do not wear hearing aids but have significant, and sometimes unidentified, hearing loss.
By informing, supporting and educating care staff, our mission is to transform the lives of people living in care with hearing loss by means of improved access, independence, equality and inclusion, therefore breaking down barriers and supporting overall wellbeing.
Aims and Experience in care settings
The Engage team embraces person-centred and relationship focused approaches. Our projects have vigorous training components accompanied by assessments of the built environment, care culture, protocols, access and responsiveness. We provide care organisations with ongoing support and are available to help with troubleshooting and resolving issues for as long as we are needed.
To increase overall wellbeing for people living with hearing loss through greater levels of social engagement, self-expression, and occupation.
2.
To increase knowledge, skills and confidence in staff members and volunteers to effectively communicate with, support and enable people living with hearing loss.
3.
To improve best practice amongst staff members in supporting people with hearing aids and hearing aid maintenance.
4.
To improve the range and quality of equipment in use that can support people living with hearing loss.
5.
To improve care plan documentation of people with hearing loss, so that it outlines ways to support their communication needs.
6.
To support management to improve policies and systems, where needed, in line with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS).
7.
To improve accessibility of activities and entertainment for people living with hearing loss.
8.
To improve the suitability and comfort of environments for people living with hearing loss.
Our Values
Inclusive
We value and celebrate diversity
Enabling
Restoring and uncovering abilities that may have been lost as a result of hearing loss
Solutions focused
Tackling beliefs that nothing can be done about hearing loss and exploring workable solutions
Motivation
Enthusing care staff to know and believe they can make a difference
Padraic Garrett
BA (Hons), BD (Hons). MSc.
Head of Engage
Padraic has worked in the care industry for more than 25 years. His roles have included Service Manager and Registered Manager in care homes and day centres, Dementia Lead, Day Centre Manager, Mental Health Project Worker, Nursing Auxiliary, and Pastoral Care Chaplain.
He holds a master’s degree in person-centred dementia care and is a qualified Executive Coach and Mentor (ILM Level 7). He has an ILM post graduate certificate in Leadership and Management. He joined Engage in 2021 having worked closely with it as a customer since the project’s foundation.
Andrew has been a deaf awareness trainer for over 25 years and has over 50 years’ experience living with hearing loss. Working in the charity sector since 2003, Andrew has trained and supported hundreds of volunteers and given medical and psychological support to thousands of people with all types of hearing loss.
For 4 years, he worked at Deafness Research UK, increasing the awareness of hearing loss by delivering hearing screening and supporting the Bionic Ear Show with over 150,000 audience members across the UK. In 2016, he set up the Engage (formerly Hearing Matters in Care) project, developing the training package, polices and reaching out to care homes as well as running hearing aid maintenance clinics across North London.
At Beis Pinchos, we pride ourselves on being responsive to our residents’ needs. We were aware that our knowledge of hearing loss needed to be improved and so we approached Engage. Our staff gained so much knowledge and motivation from the training and many came forward to become Hearing Loss champions. Within the first week we were already implementing changes to empower residents with hearing loss and improve their social engagement experiences.
Leora Basalian
It has been a pleasure to have Engage run projects in our homes for the past two years. We have been very conscious of the needs of people living with conditions such as dementia but, until we started working with Engage, we were at risk of overlooking many of the barriers experienced by residents with hearing loss. With Engage’s involvement, team members have been motivated and have developed skills to include residents with hearing loss, both with and without dementia.
Nuno Santos Lopes
Engage’s impact was immediate. Staff left the training with a buzz of excitement stating that their eyes were opened to the experiences of residents with hearing loss. As soon as the Mino became available, we began to hear how it transformed individual resident’s experiences. Staff members came forward to become Hearing Loss Champions and they have been working enthusiastically to support residents with hearing aids, ensuring that faults are dealt with quickly. We are all much more aware of the environment and addressing unnecessary noise.
Alison Lightfoot
Jewish Care is proud to be associated with Engage since its foundation seven years ago. We are delighted that their work in our homes has solidly helped hone their courses and packages so that they are most effective care home environments. Their input in Jewish Care’s homes has helped countless numbers of our residents enjoy their final years and months with us that otherwise would have been compromised by hearing issues. I highly commend them for their steadfast commitment to residents’ wellbeing and exceptional skills in staff development.
Daniel Carmel-Brown
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