Hearing impairment: resources and referrals

Hearing impairment: resources for caregivers

Make your daily life easier as a person caring for someone with a hearing impairment or for a child with a hearing impairment:

• Learn more about hearing impairment;
• Communicating with a person you are caring for who has a hearing impairment;
• Being a parent caregiver;
• Addressing administrative formalities and taxation.

Contact the ID-ASD-PD access point in your region, where “PD” stands for “Physical Disability.”

If you are concerned about your child’s hearing or that of the person you are caring for, consult a professional; early diagnosis is important. Since 2009 in Quebec, the focus has been on screening newborns with the Quebec Newborn Hearing Screening Program (in French only). In practice, only half of the babies are tested, which is a source of concern (in French only).

Audition Québec

Audition Québec provides information and referral services to adults who have a hearing impairment or who have lost their hearing, as well as to their support group, including their family, friends and co-workers. Collaboration with other provincial and regional organizations, hearing health professionals and the education community is an essential part of the approach adopted by Audition Québec.

The organization’s website includes information on understanding and living with hearing loss. You will find details on technical and technological aids, support groups and Facebook groups, and resource directories.

Caregiver Support Helpline provides telephone and email support

Caregiver Support is there for all caregivers, throughout Québec. Whether you are looking for a consultation, information or referrals, our counsellors are available every day, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. This service is free and confidential.

• By telephone: 1 855 852-7784;
• By email: info-aidant@lappui.org.

There is a page on our website dedicated to the telephone helplines that caregivers can use throughout Québec.

Better hearing and speech month

May is speech and hearing month in Québec and Speech and Hearing Month in Canada.

May 3 is National Hearing Day in Quebec, with Apraxia Awareness Day held on May 14.

The goal of all these initiatives is to raise awareness of hearing and speech disorders and the physical, psychological and social impacts they can have on people with hearing loss and those around them.