Recommendations for hearing therapy in (south) London

[Joseph]

Hi,

I am 41, originally from Tel Aviv (Israel), moved to London a year ago. I was rehabilitated in Hebrew (my implants are 15-10 y/o). My English is very good, but I find it challenging to listen to people. I often cannot follow.

I'm very confused regarding hearing therapy professionals - from what I have been able to find out so far, most are offered through the NHS but I've already exhausted my rehabilitation years ago back home, and I do not wish the burden the public health system.

I'm looking for a private clinic that might be able to help me to hear better in English, preferably in SW London (but by no means limited to it..)

Any recommendations or references would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Joseph

 

 

[Mary Beth]

Welcome to HearPeers!  I will tag a few people who may be able to put you in contact with centers that offer aural rehab for adults.

 

You may also find our topic REHAB helpful as it lists websites, apps, etc that many of us found useful.

 

Wishing you the best.

@MallaRuth

@MED-EL Moderator

@Vera

[Mary Featherston]

Hello, @Joseph and welcome!  @Daniel the Stranger isn't in London so can't recommend a clinic, but he is doing his CI rehab in his second language as well and might have some suggestions for you.

[Vera]

Hello Joseph.

I live in Skipton, in northern England.  I’d go to my GP or indeed to the nearest Cochlear Implant Centre and explain the problem.  The National Health Service is the provider for almost all CI users here.  They run regular follow up services for us, after the initial year of rehab is over, usually to see an audiologist once a year for a check/remap if necessary etc.  I don’t think there is a limit to this in terms of numbers of years since the implant.  I have a friend who moved from a different part of the U.K. after getting her CI and she just transferred to the nearest centre after she moved.  I don’t see why that wouldn’t be the case for someone who got their implant in another country.

I know you said you didn’t want to burden the NHS but, given that almost all of us have implants paid for by the NHS, I don’t think there is an infrastructure of private audiologists specialising in CIs that you might find in other countries.

You could also contact the National Cochlear Implant Users Association and ask them or indeed contact the MEDEL U.K. people in Sheffield, who I’ve always found enormously helpful and supportive.

Good luck.

Vera

 

 

[Joseph]

Thank you Vera, Mary and Mary Beth!  This is very kind of you. It's a great help! I'll do as you advised

Joseph

[MED-EL Moderator]

Hi @Joseph, 

 

Welcome to HearPeers! As Vera says, our MED-EL UK team should be able to help you with this.
Their details can be found here: https://www.medel.com/en-gb/about-medel/united-kingdom


You might also find some of our English rehabilitation blog posts handy. You can find them here: https://blog.medel.com/tips-and-tricks/

Kind regards, 

Mary

[Daniel the Stranger]

Hi @Joseph

English is my second language. I was first implanted 8 months ago and second implanted 3 months ago.

My understanding of Spanish has improved a lot, I can talk much better on the phone and I have made progress understanding speech in music. I think I still have a long way to go.

However with English the story is very different. I'm going to give more time (1 year with both sides) to make sure whether I have to go back to school to practice my listening and speaking skills. The conclusion I''m getting from this experience is that the English language I was taught while using my hearing aids was very different to the one I'm hearing with the implants. So in other words, I think I have to relearn my listening and my speaking as if I was a new English student. I have to say that English sounds much better with the implants.

I have felt progress at my workplace but I feel they are still very small steps.

Thanks @Mary Featherston for calling, writing these kind of experiences is helpful to give it a thought on what to do to improve our hearing. 

[Mary Featherston]

@Daniel the Stranger and @Joseph it wouldn't have occurred to me to think about the impact of getting your CIs in a country and a language that's not your native ones in either case. 

I will say, though, that I have an enormous amount of respect for you guys - not just the CI rehab, but even moving to a new country and living with communicating in a new language.  I've spent quite a lot of time in Spain, and quite a lot of time in Israel too, and though I was reasonably proficient, if not fluent, in Spanish at the time (it was  a long time ago and most of my vocabulary has, like Elvis, left the building, as I'm reminded every time my friend Jose Miguel posts on my Facebook page) but I could understand.  But that's a far cry from being able to communicate on a level that would make me employable, and adding CI rehab to the mix - well, you guys, as I said, you have my respect.

[Daniel the Stranger]

Thanks for your kind words @Mary Featherston, sometimes I wonder why people say I'm boring as we don't do much on weekends lol. I'm usually very tired on weekends, and perhaps this is why maybe I haven't done proper rehab since both CI activation. I'm mentally exhausted not because of the new implants but because I need to make more effort in my day to day job to be able to communicate with my coworkers. I can go to the gym after work but I don't want to do Rehab, go figure!

I know at some point I will need to go to the public library and grab some ESL books with multimedia to practice the English language again. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm still very happy with the way things are going with my CI and in that short period of time my communication has improved a lot. And music has been a blessing, I can tell you that I used to call my dad daily during my driving to work but now I only do it twice a week... I want to listen to music!

 

 

 

[Joseph]

Thank you Mary and Daniel! It's heartwarming to see that you can appreciate the difficulty.

I have to admit I've been mostly avoiding active rehab in English because I envision in advance the magnitude of what I'll have to go through and give up. I simply remember the extent of my first rehab. Step by step then  

 

 

[Mary Beth]

@Daniel the Stranger and @Joseph

Small steps help us reach our goals too.  Some of the free online rehab sites listed in our REHAB topic are designed for anyone learning English as a second language.  Maybe one of those sites will be a nice fit for you.  15-20 minutes each day.  

I will tag you in the post about a free website I like which is designed for English language learners and works great for CI rehab.

Wishing you both the best.

[Mary Featherston]

@Daniel the Stranger isn't it great to be hearing music again?  Not everything sounds great to me but I listen in the car every day to and from work, and that gives me an hour of music listening practice!  And tomorrow it should be more like two or three hours if it keeps snowing.  🙂

@Joseph - we are here for you.  You're right, one step at a time, it's all you can do.  And remember you're practicing listening to English every day in London, every  time you talk to someone.  Good luck!