Kiritaki (clients) of The Hearing House can now receive advice and support from its in-house counselling service via a confidential texting system.
The Hearing House is an Auckland-based charity that delivers a range of services and programmes to kiritaki from Cape Reinga to Taupō, helping people who use cochlear implants to hear.
“We realise that texting is an efficient and useful way of communicating for some people, so we’re delighted to be able to offer this service to our kiritaki,” says whānau support person and counsellor Hazel Benson-Dawe.
As in-house counsellor, Hazel works in collaboration with The Hearing House’s speech and language therapists and audiologists, welcoming new kirtaki and their whānau as they first begin to consider cochlear implants as a way of accessing sound.
Hazel also works alongside interpreters for kiritaki who are Deaf, accommodating different ways of communicating into her practice.
She says that co-care services, such as counselling and group workshops, can be helpful for kiritaki who are experiencing the following:
Anxiety around surgery
Ongoing frustration from challenging communicating with others due to hearing
Grief of life lived with challenges related to hearing
Processing around having a child who has different hearing experiences
Talking through experience of being in the health system
Hopes and frustrations around hearing outcomes
Kiritaki and their whānau can text 027 362 0658 with an inquiry Monday to Friday from 9am -5pm. Those aged under 14 need to have permission or guidance from an adult or caregiver to use the service.
Those who are experiencing severe distress or a health issue should call 111 for emergencies or 0800 611 116 for Healthline.
As a charity, The Hearing House relies on fundraising and donations to provide unique services and programmes to its kiritaki, including outreach clinics and the Cochlear Implant Repair Fund, and to help cover its operating costs. For more information on supporting its work, please see link.
