We move swiftly on, and the final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-09310, in the name of Fiona McLeod, on Action on Hearing Loss and the benefits of its hear to help service. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament commends the Action on Hearing Loss hearing aid support service, Hear to Help; considers that, by offering free maintenance, information and support for NHS hearing aid wearers, it provides an invaluable service; understands that the advantages for users include increased use of and benefit and satisfaction from their hearing aids, easier and speedier access to support and services in the area where they live, improved confidence and communication skills and reduced feelings of isolation, and congratulates Action on Hearing Loss on its community-based service in Strathkelvin and Bearsden and across the country, which, with the support of what it sees as its hard-working volunteers, works closely with audiology services across communities to provide a mix of outreach, domiciliary and drop-in services.
17:03
I thank the members across the parties who signed my motion so that we could hold the debate. I also thank the members who will speak and who have stayed to listen to the opening speeches. I thank the minister for meeting volunteers from Action on Hearing Loss earlier this afternoon. I welcome to the public gallery many volunteers and their supporters—supporters who are human and canine.
I welcome Delia Henry, who is the director of Action on Hearing Loss Scotland, and her staff. I thank her and her staff for the effort that they put into producing the briefing for the debate, which was incredibly helpful for a lot of members. I think that I am right in saying that Paul Breckell, Action on Hearing Loss’s chief executive, is up from London. I welcome him and thank him for joining us. He did not need his passport to come here, and he still will not need it after September.
I first met volunteers for Action on Hearing Loss and its hear to help service at the Kilsyth Road sheltered housing complex in my constituency. On that day, Action on Hearing Loss was celebrating a birthday. The volunteers were there not only to help the people who live in the complex with their hearing aids but to celebrate, so we had birthday cake. That was a nice introduction to a very good group of volunteers; it was also the first time that I met Irene and Muffin, her hearing dog, who inspired me to do as much as I can to help the charity.
Along the way, I have hosted two Scottish National Party fringe meetings for the charity and attended its drop-in sessions at Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs libraries in my constituency. Indeed, I went to the Bishopbriggs library drop-in just before Christmas; there was no birthday cake this time, but there were sweeties and Santa hats. The group of volunteers really know what they are doing, and they also know how to welcome people along to their drop-in services. It would be remiss of me not to say that, in 2012, our Irene and Muffin were awarded the national health service volunteer of the year award in Scotland for all the work that they do. In the past 10 months, 145 people attended the drop-in sessions in my constituency, but we do not have just those sessions, as work is also done in the Campsie view care home and in two sheltered housing complexes.
This is such important work for a lot of reasons. Having local drop-in sessions for people who need to have their hearing aid retubed or batteries put in makes it so much easier for them to get along and make sure that everything is working okay. Having volunteers doing the work helps, too, because many of them are also hearing aid users, so they bring the personal touch. They are trained to do their job well, but they also bring the hints and tips that they know and give them to the people who attend the drop-in sessions.
Increasingly, the volunteers also work with other services. For example, just last week, Esther Rantzen from the Silver Line was in the Parliament, and she talked about the work that that organisation is doing with Action on Hearing Loss.
The biggest and most important thing is that, if someone’s hearing aid fits properly and performs to its maximum, they will use it. They will not be like my father-in-law, who kept his hearing aid in a drawer “to keep it good”. That does not work.
The issue is also important because deafness is a disability that is associated with ageing, and all of us in the Parliament know that we are looking at an ageing population, so we will have more and more people with a hearing loss, which can be incredibly socially isolating. We have to work on that. I know from my family’s personal experience that hearing loss can be masked by other problems. If someone has dementia, it is not always easy to know that they have a hearing loss. Local drop-in sessions with people who are trusted are incredibly important.
This work is about the voluntary sector working in partnership with the national health service—something that all of us in the Parliament support. It also helps to meet elements of the Scottish Government’s see hear strategy, which was launched, I think, just last week. I will give some statistics on the work that the hear to help service has done over the past few years. There have been 13,868 interventions to support hearing aid wearers, and drop-in sessions in 52 community venues. Hear to help volunteers have contributed 16,000 hours, which equates to £122,400-worth of work. There are four projects across Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Tayside, Borders and Ayrshire and Arran.
Those statistics show that this is a valuable service, that it is used well and that it also saves the national health service money, so I conclude by asking why, for yet another year, some health boards are having to be chased for the funding for this incredibly useful service. My plea to the health boards would be that they know that the service makes sense financially, clinically and socially for hearing aid wearers, so they should please just sort the funding. Beyond that, I would say to the four health boards that are involved and are experiencing the benefits they should not just sort the funding but go out and spread the word to other health boards around the country.
I again thank members for being here and contributing to the debate and, most important, I thank the volunteers for the amazing work that they do across our communities. I finish with an invitation to the reception that I will hold for Action on Hearing Loss in Parliament on the evening of Tuesday 20 May in committee room 2. Everyone is welcome to come along and hear the volunteers’ personal experiences.
Thank you for the commercial.
17:10
I congratulate my colleague Fiona McLeod on securing the debate.
The 2011 Scottish census asked for the very first time whether respondents had partial hearing loss or deafness. The census data established that, at that time, just under 351,000 people, or 7 per cent of the population, had partial hearing loss or deafness. The data also showed that 5,194 people from my constituency said that they suffered from partial hearing loss or deafness. At the time, that was one in 10 of my electorate, which is a substantial number of people, and the figure is growing because, as we get older, we tend to lose some of our hearing faculties.
I commend Action on Hearing Loss and its hear to help project, particularly because it started in the Scottish Borders in 2007. It is very important that such projects are accessible in particularly rural areas, where travelling distances can be such a difficulty for people. Since then, hear to help has done 14 quarterly care home visits and, since 2009, it has run 305 drop-in sessions, retubed 3,500 hearing aids and distributed approximately 9,200 packets of hearing aid batteries. That is all very practical stuff and, as Fiona McLeod said, it is volunteers who deliver the service—18 active volunteers deliver 5,500 hours of volunteering time. All that volunteering is free, and it is often given by people who suffer themselves from hearing impairment, so they know what they are talking about and therefore people pay attention to them. They know about people concealing their hearing loss or feeling isolated or ashamed that their hearing is becoming impaired, so they are able to break down barriers. Through the delivery of the service, they are also saving the national health service—in the case of my constituency, NHS Borders—a great deal of money and resources. I congratulate those volunteers on what they are doing.
I move on to a new initiative—actually, it is not a new initiative; there cannot be such a thing as a new initiative or an old initiative, as that is a tautology—called BLISS. The Borders local integrated sensory service is quite a mouthful, and I am glad that it calls itself BLISS. With BLISS, Action on Hearing Loss has combined with the Royal National Institute of Blind People to deliver services on the main street. It is important that the service is not hidden away but is at 46 High Street, Galashiels, just down the road from my office. I am delighted to say that I, other MSPs and MPs attended the opening of the office. It is a nice, shiny, attractive office that holds practical information telling people about the various places where they can go to get help. It also has little rooms where people can have private meetings. That is probably one of the ways forward that we can take in this time of funding difficulties.
Fiona McLeod was quite right to raise the issue of funding, because we know that hear to help is short of funding and will lose funding in June. I know that BLISS, too, has challenges with its funding. Perhaps volunteering is the way forward in some areas. Volunteers for BLISS have given up 10,000 hours to support people. BLISS has 60 volunteers, combining those from the RNIB and those from hear to help. Some people suffer from hearing loss and sight problems as they get older, and the project is very much to be commended.
I commend the volunteers, who are unsung heroes. Sybil King, Jean Gibson and Eileen Frame are all from the Borders; Rob Marr is not a borderer but comes from East Lothian—somebody has to come from East Lothian. Rob volunteers in West Linton, Peebles and Innerleithen. Those people are the salt of the earth. Unlike those of us who are paid and get recognition, they do what they do quietly and deliver something practical and useful to people who need it and are thankful for it.
I congratulate Fiona McLeod on securing the debate. It is time that we recognised the effort that has been put in by the volunteers, and I would like the minister to give the projects some money.
17:15
I congratulate Fiona McLeod on bringing the debate to the chamber, and I pay tribute to the work of Action on Hearing Loss and the hear to help support service. It is evident from what we have heard about the service in the speeches so far that it is a lifeline for many people in our communities who use hearing aids. I very much hope that the funding that Christine Grahame asked for will allow that very useful project to be rolled out so that people—especially those in constituencies and regions such as mine who cannot access audiology services easily—can benefit from it.
It is hard to imagine how isolating hearing loss can be. People no longer have the ability to enter into conversation, and all the interactions that we take for granted, which involve hearing and listening to what people are saying and making our own contributions, are lost. In addition, many of those people are elderly and may be at a difficult time in their life—perhaps they have lost a partner or they are losing their mobility and independence—and the frustration of not being able to express themselves and hear reactions must be very difficult for them.
Fiona McLeod mentioned the cross-party group discussions last week on the Silver Line telephone helpline. If someone suffers from hearing loss, the simple services that are out there are no longer available to them because they cannot access them easily. In addition, it is very difficult to access information, so we need to take seriously the impact of hearing loss on a person’s life.
I have a friend who lost her sight in adulthood. She often said that as a plus point—if there is a plus point to losing your sight—she was glad that it was her sight that she had lost rather than her hearing, because at least she could still interact with friends. That underlines how difficult it must be for someone to lose their hearing.
Early intervention is important. We need to identify those who may suffer from hearing loss and give them access to services in a timely manner. When my father began to lose his hearing, we went to clinics begging for a hearing aid, but no one would give him one because they said that he was not ready for an aid yet. That went on and on, and he eventually got a hearing aid. However, hours after it had been fitted, we discovered that it was in his pocket. He said that he was better off with everything quiet, because it had been quiet for so long that he was no longer able to use the hearing aid and get the full benefit from it. That was quite sad, and I think that, if he had had the aid some years before, it would have made a big difference to his life. We need to look at screening and ensure that people have early access to services.
We also need to consider—this is part of the hear to help project—how we cater for the elderly population who cannot access audiology services easily because they cannot travel into towns and perhaps live a long way away. They may need help with maintenance such as battery care, because they may not be able to take the new technology on board very easily. That is where the hear to help project comes into its own, as it helps those people to get the maximum benefit from their hearing aid when they get it.
We have to look at other aspects. If we are able to identify people early on, we can ensure that they are taught British Sign Language, for example, so that it becomes natural to them. Once their hearing loss becomes apparent, they can pick up and hone those skills more easily if they have already learned them. That applies to lip reading too, which would allow people to communicate more easily.
We need to look after our hearing, because it is very precious. I hope that the minister will look at ways of rolling out the hear to help service in other parts of Scotland.
17:19
I, too, congratulate Fiona McLeod on bringing this important debate to the chamber—it is good that we do this kind of thing. Fiona adequately summed up what the hear to help service is about. It is just one of the services that are provided by Action on Hearing Loss, which I support.
I emphasise that it is important that we get as early an analysis of people’s problems as possible. Fiona McLeod said that we are looking at an ageing population—well, I look at an ageing population every time I look in the mirror, and I was thinking of hanging around and keeping it that way. However, what I know about my family history tells me that, if I stick around, not only will I be a bigger pain but I probably will not hear as well.
As I have told members before, because I damaged my ear, I am one of those people who got a hearing aid relatively early in life, which gives me some advantages on occasion. Part of the problem is that, as Rhoda Grant pointed out, when people do not get diagnosed early enough, they get so used to their impaired hearing that they struggle to work with a hearing aid when they get one. That issue was the subject of an extremely interesting discussion at our most recent party conference, where I convened a meeting for a change. We are beginning to understand that early diagnosis is important. It is about spending to save, although I say that knowing fine well that the minister and the Scottish Government understand it and that I am preaching to the converted.
I commend the volunteers who work in the hear to help service. They come to my constituency, with sessions in Brechin library, the Links health centre in Montrose and Whitehills health centre in Forfar. However, I share the concerns that the service needs to be properly funded. We are not sure whether Angus Council is going to fund it, but I encourage it to do so. Looking further north in my constituency, it appears that Aberdeenshire Council is not signed up to the service, so I find myself saying, “Dear Aberdeenshire Council, why not?” I suspect that it really should do that.
I want to consider why people do not go for early diagnosis. A couple of things apply, simply because we are human beings. I am sure that, when we lose our faculties, we tend to compensate and I suspect that we learn to lip read. We just do not want to believe that we are losing our hearing or possibly our sight or some of our other faculties. There is a lack of awareness of the decay of our abilities. However, I am sure that a fraction of the population know perfectly well that they cannot hear or see as well as they could but just believe that nobody cares or will do anything about it, or that anything much can be done. Part of what we have to do is to encourage those who are aware of their problem to find ways of getting it diagnosed and getting help.
That was one of the themes of the aforementioned meeting—that we probably need to do as much as we can in the high streets to enable people to go into the chemist and get a hearing test. That would allow them simply to find out how good or bad their hearing is. People can then, without too much effort, understand that they have a problem and be signposted in the right direction.
Fiona McLeod was good enough to invite us to a reception, which I wrote down as being on Tuesday 28 May—is that right?
It is 20 May.
It is important that we get that right. I will give members another date by inviting anyone who has an interest in the issue to come to the Webster theatre in Arbroath on Sunday 8 June. I say that partly because that will be the first and only scheduled performance of a musical that I have written about Mr Burns, but much more importantly in the context—this is not irrelevant—I will take the opportunity to raise some money for Action on Hearing Loss, because I genuinely want to support the charity, which works in my area. We are all getting older and our faculties will not get any better—this is irreversible, guys. Therefore, any money that is put into that worthy charity has to be a good thing.
17:23
I thank members for the tourist information bulletins that have peppered the debate, and I thank Fiona McLeod for having secured it. I unreservedly congratulate the Scottish Government on the action plan that it has launched and the funding that it has put towards it. This is another of those issues on which the Parliament has demonstrated that it has the luxury of time to pause so that we can reflect on, debate and produce strategies on issues that otherwise tend to be marginalised and overlooked. The Government’s action plan is to be commended.
I particularly acknowledge the work of Delia Henry and her team at Action on Hearing Loss. I pay tribute to Donaldson’s school for the deaf, which has interacted with members of the Parliament to great effect on a number of occasions—I will say a little more about that in a minute.
I want to do all that I can to support and encourage people to take advantage of the hear to help service. I visited one of the local operations in the west of Scotland in the village of Neilston. It is important to emphasise that it is not some great big, grand enterprise but a highly practical operation with volunteers who are there to assist. When I went along, I was invited to see whether there was anything that I could do, if I wished. I have to say that I am so ham-fisted on such occasions that I decided that it would probably not be to the advantage of anybody’s hearing aid to let me loose on it. However, it brought home to me how pernickety and fiddly the work is and, therefore, how vital it is that there is a service—in the case of the Neilston operation, supported by many volunteers—that allows the important cleaning and renewal of the batteries to be undertaken effectively.
If somebody is ham-fisted as I am, the easiest thing for them to do is to damage the hearing aid irreparably or, if they do not have confidence, not to have it properly serviced with the result that it is rendered ineffective. The voluntary groups that operate in all the locations that have been mentioned throughout Scotland provide a vital service and we need to do everything that we can to promote it to ensure that people appreciate that there is probably access to such a service near to them.
I will also say something about the on the move project, which is another of the projects that Action on Hearing Loss promotes. It relates to information and access for 16 to 25-year-olds.
When I visited Donaldson’s school for the deaf, I was very struck by a sculpture in the entrance foyer. It had a profound impact on me. It is of a pair of hands and was made by a talented pupil who was a star of the school and was able to go to the University of Aberdeen in the expectation of fulfilling a meaningful career. However, that young person was crushed—his confidence was crushed—because of the lack of a continuing service for people of his age when he got there. Eventually, he completely lost confidence and withdrew.
Nothing could demonstrate more the need for us to ensure continuity of care so that young people moving into the world of work and employment who have such talent and wish to contribute do not find themselves wholly marginalised because of a lack of sensitivity and understanding among others who somehow misjudge their impairment as a lack of ability, intelligence or willingness to participate. It must be soul destroying not to be able to take advantage of that talent when it exists.
I agree with what Rhoda Grant said about British Sign Language. When people from Donaldson’s school were in the Parliament, they taught members a little bit of signing. I have forgotten it all, but the point is that it was not difficult to pick up some basic signing. It would be useful for more people to be able to participate at that level.
The demographic challenge has been mentioned once again—yes, the ageing population. This is, after all, an ageing Parliament and many of us feel that ministers are serially deaf to all the pleas that we often make. However, in this instance, the Government has responded effectively.
Fiona McLeod’s motion has given us a chance to articulate and give further support to an important matter. I congratulate her on that and I welcome the efforts that the Government is making.
17:28
I add my thanks to my colleague Fiona McLeod for and I congratulate her on securing this debate on the really important, if sometimes overlooked, subject of hearing loss.
I also commend the work carried out by Action on Hearing Loss around Scotland. Like other members, I am grateful to Alan Dalziel, the communications and campaigns manager for Action on Hearing Loss for drawing to our attention the range of support services that the organisation provides.
What struck me first is that it is the small interventions that make the most difference. Providing basic maintenance, such as replacing tubes and batteries—which Jackson Carlaw mentioned—and cleaning out ear moulds, means that people with a hearing impairment do not need to attend hospital for such services. There are a number of advantages to that: people do not need to make journeys to the audiology departments of hospitals and staff there can concentrate on the clinical side of the work.
It is possibly of even greater importance that people with hearing impairments can feel comfortable about dropping into the various hear to help locations to meet, discuss issues and get advice and guidance on a variety of subjects. That is all extremely valuable and makes an even bigger contribution to their sense of wellbeing. It helps to reduce the isolation that people with sensory impairments all too often feel.
I am delighted to learn that two hear to help services currently operate in Kilmarnock—one in the town centre and one in Onthank, where I grew up—and that another is planned for the town of Newmilns. I am also delighted to learn that two volunteers from my constituency—Katrina Hyslop and Wilma Anderson—are in the public gallery tonight, and I offer them a warm welcome.
I was taken aback when I read that, in Scotland, there are 850,000 people with some level of hearing loss. The impact that that has on people’s lives often goes far beyond the disability itself. I will illustrate what I mean. Some time ago, I had the privilege of attending a question-and-answer session with members of the Ayrshire mission to the deaf. Their first message to me, through their interpreter, was to keep things as simple as possible, not to use complex words and concepts and, of course, to try to speak slowly for the benefit of those who were trying to lip read. It became obvious to me that people with hearing loss and hearing impairment can face an ever-widening circle of exclusion, because they cannot interpret language and its complexities as quickly as others can. For example, forms are more difficult, if not impossible, for them to understand. Queuing up in any kind of setting—for example, in job centres, council offices, shops or pubs—becomes incredibly stressful, because more time is needed to explain and to understand. People with hearing loss or impairment often give up on those types of interaction altogether.
The language in newspapers is often far too complex, and even our party political leaflets are almost unintelligible to people with hearing impairments—there is perhaps no surprise there. The experience certainly made me think carefully about how we can communicate ideas as simply as possible.
All those issues lead to further isolation. That is why the work that is carried out by Action on Hearing Loss and the hear to help service is so important. Bringing people together helps them to overcome many of those problems and it certainly helps to hold back further exclusion, which will inevitably get worse if we lose such services.
I thank Fiona McLeod for bringing to the Parliament’s attention the issues surrounding hearing loss, and I commend the work that is done by Action on Hearing Loss and the valuable contribution that it makes to enriching the lives of those with a hearing disability.
17:32
Like others, I thank Fiona McLeod for bringing this debate to the Parliament and I congratulate her on securing time and support for her motion.
Just last Thursday, I had the pleasure of launching Scotland’s national sensory impairment strategy, see hear, which Fiona McLeod mentioned in her speech. The strategy has been developed in close collaboration with partner organisations across the country—local authorities, health boards and small and large third sector organisations. I take this opportunity to place on record my thanks to Action on Hearing Loss for its invaluable and insightful contribution to the development of the national strategy and also for its commitment to take forward the most important element of the strategy, which is its implementation: taking the words from the page and turning them into real action on the ground.
The see hear strategy is the first sensory impairment strategy of its kind, not only here in Scotland but anywhere in the UK. It recognises the need to ensure that we give the right support and assistance to the approximately 850,000 people with hearing loss in Scotland, as well as to those who have a visual impairment or a deaf-blind impairment. It is there to help support those with a hearing loss or a visual impairment, whether mild or profound. Moreover, it considers also the risks of sensory loss and issues relating to those who may be living with a hidden or an untreated sensory loss, which is the very point that Nigel Don raised in his speech. Particularly vulnerable in that regard are older people in our care homes. It is important that we ensure that, given that they are vulnerable to having an untreated or hidden sensory loss, they get access to the right kind of services and assessment in order to address their sensory loss.
The key emphasis is on delivering positive, person-centred outcomes through partnership working that will improve outcomes at a local level and will allow the seamless provision of assessment, care and support to children and adults who are living with a sensory impairment.
Local partnership working will be crucial to that, with all partners—local authority, health board and the third sector—engaged in working together on a joint plan to take the partnership forward locally. Christine Grahame talked about the need for joint planning and joint working. If we get that right, we can deliver much more integrated, efficient and effective care and support to people who are living with sensory loss and impairment.
However, the delivery of significant and tangible improvements to the provision of care will count for absolutely nothing unless there is equity in how services affect people on the ground and unless there is improvement in the quality of life for individuals living with or experiencing a sensory loss.
Fiona McLeod referred to the fact that, earlier today, I had the pleasure of meeting a number of volunteers from throughout the country—Glasgow, Tayside, the Borders, and Ayrshire and Arran—who are involved in hear to help. And how could I not mention Muffin and Callie, their two canine helpers? The work of those volunteers in delivering the hear to help initiative clearly demonstrates the importance of effective, good, local partnership working and the impact that it can have on someone’s day-to-day life.
Fiona McLeod was right to highlight that the hear to help initiative offers a variety of community-based provision, such as drop-in centres, outreach and home services. Volunteers work throughout their local NHS board area and, in doing so, help to relieve some of the pressure on our audiology services from repeated requests. In that sense, the service helps to maximise the potential gains for the local community through local volunteers, who can help to support and assist those with a hearing impairment.
Fiona McLeod and others were right to say that that initiative is proving invaluable in improving the quality of life of people throughout the country who use hearing aids. The see hear strategy aims to support that very approach and to develop and enhance the type of local service delivery that improves services across the board. It is important that we ensure that that translates into real, tangible improvement on the ground for service users.
Current local service delivery models operate at different levels throughout the country. I recognise that some health boards are more productive than others. I encourage them all to look at that approach as a mechanism that can help to improve the delivery of audiology services in their area. A key part of the new strategy will be to look at the current provision—for example the work that is being taken forward by Action on Hearing Loss and other organisations—and take that into account and include it in any new care pathway that is developed as part of the new strategy. Borders local integrated sensory services in Galashiels, which I had the pleasure of opening back in 2011, is a good example of the type of service that the new strategy wants to build upon in order to develop further. The funding that is being delivered alongside the strategy is to help to increase that capacity further.
I want to mention the way in which Action on Hearing Loss has gone about helping to effect change in this area. I am more than happy to put on record my appreciation of the work that AHL does throughout the country, through initiatives such as hear to help. Moreover, its continuing contribution to the implementation of our new national sensory impairment strategy will be invaluable and very much appreciated. I am certain that, within the collaborative and innovative framework created by the see hear strategy, hear to help will continue to flourish in its delivery of benefits to local service users.
I finish by simply thanking Action on Hearing Loss and the hear to help volunteers for their dedication and work over the years. I wish them well in taking that forward in the weeks, months and years ahead.
Meeting closed at 17:40.Previous
Decision Time