A Vancouver Island hearing clinic is offering to help people who lost access to affordable care this past summer. The Island Deaf and Hard of Hearing Centres (IDHHC) in Saanich and Nanaimo closed in June, leaving hundreds of people in the lurch. The centres served low-income families and seniors, offering affordable hearing care in a system that can be prohibitively expensive. John Boland was a client there for seven years. “I relied on them for maintaining my hearing aids. Without the proper maintenance, my hearing aids are no good,” he said. The tubes on Boland’s hearing aids need to be replaced three times a year. When the hearing centres closed, he worried he’d be functionally deaf in a matter of months. A few weeks ago, he found a team of clinicians who were willing to help. “I was ecstatic, relieved, very happy,” Boland said. “Their compassion is outstanding.” Broadmead Hearing Clinic in Saanich is taking on former IDHHC clients and offering some services for free, including hearing tests and hearing aid maintenance and cleaning. The same free services are being offered at the clinic’s locations in Oak Bay, Colwood and Qualicum Beach. “We are a local, independent clinic and this is our community,” said Vivien Brown, the clinic owner and a hearing instrument practitioner. “When something like this happens, I think you’ve just got to be willing to roll up your sleeves and help.” The IDHHC cited financial pressures as its reason for closure after 35 years. It offered employment support, American Sign Language instruction, interpreting and captioning services, and employment support to deaf, deaf-blind and hard-of-hearing people. The centres also provided free, refurbished hearing aids to people with low incomes. Brown said she and her team can’t replicate those services, but they’re eager to donate their time to help former IDHHC clients maintain their hearing aids. “When you have hearing loss and you’re fit with hearing aids, there’s a lot of ongoing care that is needed,” Brown said. “You can’t just fit somebody and just leave them.” The team at Broadmead’s front desk said they’ve fielded about 70 calls from former IDHHC clients. They don’t want those clients to lose their ability to hear. “It’s very isolating to be removed from conversation,” said Brittani Trapp, a Broadmead audiologist who used to work at the IDHHC. “Without access to hearing, individuals don’t have the access to their community, to their family, their friends.” Nearly 25 per cent of Canadian adults have hearing loss, according to the province. That number rises to 65 per cent for people over the age of 70. Hearing aids can cost upward of $6,000. There’s limited coverage available, but they’re not universally covered by B.C.’s medical services plan. “I would love to see the change where there is more funding available for hearing care and hearing aid services for everybody within the province,” Trapp said. Brown is encouraging former IDHHC clients to get in touch, but is asking for patience. “We’re just asking for everybody to be a little bit patient,” she said. “Because we’re trying to manage this increased demand and because we don’t want to rush care and we also don’t want to overwhelm the team.”
