Action on Hearing Loss is the largest charity representing more than 11 million people who are deaf or have hearing loss in the UK. As a membership charity, Action on Hearing Loss aims to achieve a radically better quality of life for people with hearing loss.
The trust is working with Action on Hearing Loss to achieve its “Louder than Words” Charter.
On the 16th of May Action on Hearing carried out a benchmarking exercise to assess our Accident and Emergency Department and Outpatient Departments against its standards.
Louder than Words™
Action on Hearing Loss’ prestigious Louder than Words™ charter informs people of our commitment to providing the best possible practice to our patients and staff with hearing loss. It demonstrates to the public that we take the needs of our patients and employees seriously.
To achieve and maintain Louder than Words™, we were assessed against the following ten
standards:
- Train staff to communicate with patients visitors
- Have clear and visible deaf-aware policies
- Provide clear information about our products and services
- Use appropriate equipment and maintain it correctly
- Create a good listening environment
- Produce and follow clear health and safety procedures
- Meet requests for communication support whenever requested
- Offer a range of contact methods and be comfortable using them
- Consult patients and staff
- Be open about our employment practices
Good Practice
During the benchmark the following areas were highlighted as areas of good practice:
- All new staff on desks where hearing support systems are installed or are available are shown how to use them as part of their induction.
- All policies and materials seen were written in plain English and all staff are aware where to find the policies. All policies are centrally Equality Impact Assessed.
- When patients attend the clinic, they are marked off on the patient sheet. The nurse would then call out their name and in most clinics would walk round checking for that patient.
- Each page of the website has an easy-read summary for those whose first language may not be English or who may have difficulty with written English.
- There are many visual resources for checking health levels and finding out information.
- These are all written in plain English and are very accessible.