Attendance Allowance and Deafness

Hi,

I want to fill out AA forms for my dad who uses 2 digital hearing aides and wouldn't be able to hear at all without them.

Could anyone point me in the direction of advice on filling out the forms from the perspective of someone who is deaf?

I can obviously write down what is difficult for my dad, but there could be things I haven't thought of. I looked at the RNID site, but couldn't find relevant info on there.

Thanks for any help,

Amalia.

I've just read your post, I'm unaware of the difference in paperwork for AA and DLA, however, as someone who is deaf and has DLA (in addition I have some other medical issues, but I will try to focus on the advice given for DLA).

The critical point is [with DLA] the care you need, not the care you actually get.

Deafness has a major impact, it's called communication and isn't appreciated until you can no longer hear anything at all. With hearing aids you are given some hearing capability back, they aren't like spectacles where your eyesight can be restored in some cases to near perfect. With hearing aids you get amplification that means noises become loud as voices do.

As such even with hearing aids often people still need other to be deaf aware, speak clearly and at a normal pace, face the person and stop waving your hands around - they distract lip readers!

So your fathers application needs to be based on his dfficulty to understand people speaking in a 'normal' manner, asking them to repeat what they say, to face him when talking, perhaps as in my case lip reading people with dialects or certain accents is impossible, finding someone else to help in a shop, numbers are very difficult to lip read, so prices and phone numbers need to be written down.

Use of public address announcements are hopeless, listening to the radio, using the phone, perhaps text relay/minicom, loop systems that don' work properly in shops and the bank, all these are daily disruptions to life even when you have some residual hearing through the use of hearing aids.

Moving on, around the home when your father removes his hearing aids, can he hear the smoke alarm? The door bell, telephone, someone calling him - both with and without hearing aids.

If he can't hear these sounds he is in need of help, if with hearing aids he can hear them, what happens when asleep?

Sleep is another worrying time for deaf people who live alone, it's dark and you can't hear a thing. How do you know there isn't a burglar or worse still a fire downstairs?

This can also lead usefully to balance issues, vertigo from changing position, difficulty walking due to balance issues. Both in the home and outside.

Perhaps other medical conditions make balance worse, old age alone may not assist.

These are the sorts of areas the deaf need assistance in, the best advice I was given when applying for DLA was to keep a diary of all the times I needed help or assistance, stumbled, fell or woke up in blind panic, not knowing what was happening, if anything. Do this for a couple of weeks then document the reasons you need assistance.

It's not an easy thing to do as you are highlighting areas in which you 'fail' and loose not only communication, but also become isolated and dependant.

Isolation through finding too much noise at social events, so switching off the hearing aids and then withdrawing is another major issue with deafness and in parallel with this comes depression, which has on occassions been referred to as mourning, I can now with some hindsight see the relevance of making that connection - it is a major sensory disability, people think you're ignorant or rude, because the deaf don't get a walking stick or crutches, a wheelchair or a white cane, it's the hidden disability.

Hope this help you a little, again I'm sorry if the process for DLA and AA are so different.

Best wishes,