Raising awareness of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

The team atAston Hearing Service are now on a missionto raise awareness about SSHL and helpprofessionals and patients determine the rightemergency treatment.

It’s been an eventful year for Duncan Collet-Fensonand the team at Aston Hearing Services. Duncanexplains, “The last 12 months has been hectic!We doubled the size of our team, opened a newfull-time practice, extensively refurbished our mainpractice and of course won Audiologist of the Year.”Not only did Duncan win the UK title, but in October was“Shocked to have done the double”, as he was crownedEuropean Audiologist of the Year at the Rayovac eveningof excellence.

The team has not stood still since then. “Our immediatethoughts were – how can we make the most of this in the Ear Foundation. Nikki started researching cochlearimplants too. A week later Nikki put her hearing aid backin and Duncan was able to confirm with Nikki that herhearing had finally returned to the levels prior to the SSHLincident. All of them felt like a miracle had happened.

“From that moment onwards we determined not to letthis experience pass without improving services. We metwith our ENT shortly after who as a result has written us acovering letter that we can give to anyone that presents toour office with the symptoms. The letter enables patientsto go direct to GP/Hospital pharmacy for thesteroids without having to go through A&E triage.This is an enormous step forward.”

From patient to employee

And now Nikki works for Aston Hearing Services.“We have recruited Nikki to be our CommunityEvents Co-Ordinator. Nikki is a great advocate forhearing awareness and gave talks to local interestgroups independently from Aston Hearing. Withher experience of living with reduced hearingday to day, hearing instrument use and SSHLshe was the perfect fit to work alongside AstonHearing to promote all these facets of hearinghealthcare to the public but also healthcareprofessionals and organisations. She has beena fantastic addition to the team with her insightsinto hearing care. Nikki has already been involvedwith event planning and interacting with many clientseither discussing the merits of hearing aid use to thosejust starting out their hearing journey to seeing clientswho have worn hearing devices for years but have neverreally discussed the challenges with anyone in a similarsituation. Nikki’s positive attitude to living with hearingchallenges is really helping people recognise that lifereally can be lived to the full – however mammoth thedifficulties faced.”

Developing the family business

Nikki has joined a very busy practice. Duncan and KateCollet-Fenson have been working in the business for20 years now and were lucky to have a “great mentor”–Sue Webster (Kate’s mother.) Sue established AstonHearing in 1989, after several years’ service in the NHSshe recognised that there was a market for clients whorequired more time, attention and choice than they werebeing offered both by the NHS and elsewhere privately.“We hope that those core values are still at the centre ofwhat drives us, our team and the business forward. Wehave taken a conscious decision to invest in the ‘people’at Aston Hearing. To enable us to offer a high level ofservice we believe you need a high ratio of good peopleto deliver the Aston Hearing ‘experience’ to the peopleaccessing our services.”

There is a team that work hard behind the scenes organisingand hosting events which create opportunities to ‘advertise’using traditional methods and social media which thenbecomes the catalyst for new into the business. “Wehave continued to foster good relationships with local GPpractices and other professionals and are acutely awarethat referrals and word of mouth be it from a friend ofprofessional are the lifeblood of the practice,” Duncan said.

“We both embrace change and are always open to newideas and concepts which I think has helped us to adaptwith the market. I also believe you are never too old tolearn and think continually reviewing your service offering,procedures, skills and trying to look with new eyes at whatand where you work is important. AIHHP [Associationof Independent Hearing Healthcare Professionals] hasbeen a great help over the years we have been members.Listening to leading figures in audiology and keeping upto-date with current or future thinking and also discussingeither formally, or over a drink, with my fellow members hasbeen invaluable and certainly influenced Aston Hearing.”

Duncan on a mission

So, what’s next for the European Audiologist of the Yearafter a whirlwind year? “The road map for this year ishopefully less chaotic, but equally as important to drivingthe business forward.” Duncan said. “We have planned aseries of monthly awareness events which are alreadyproving successful and a number of interesting projectsto work on over the year – including working very closelywith hearing charities, especially Hearing Link and HearingDogs for Deaf People.” And the focus on Sudden SensorineuralHearing Loss continues, “Our mission with SSHL is try andfind out more how it is dealt with in other countries. Wefeel that the way the UK NHS/GP/A&E is set up at themoment it is very difficult to ascertain the right emergencytreatment. We will continue to pursue this and hope thatperhaps with the help of publications such as Audio Infosand Audiology World News we can learn more and betterserve communities throughout the UK.”