Meetings

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Stress Management for the Holidays

Thank you to those who attended last Saturday’s meeting, it was good to see our regulars and a few new faces.  Gift bags were given to attendees as a show of appreciation.  Thank you Donna and Mike for taking time to put them together.  Special recognition went  to Julia Stepp for going above and beyond CART, helping us whenever she can and to Susan Chilton for leading our interactive meetings getting us in touch with our support group efforts again.

A few new faces

 

our regulars

Susan led the meeting on Stress Management for the Holidays.

Susan Chilton with CART

She had a lot of practical advice for the everyday person such as cutting back on traditions or delegating tasks to family.  Other suggestions were to get outside in the sun for a walk or get regular exercise. Treat  yourself to a massage or ask a family member to trade foot or hand massages.  As hard of hearing it’s important to place yourself at your best vantage point around a holiday table.  Sit by a sympathetic family member who will help you hear, try for a corner position at the table to help reduce acoustic problems.

Other news: Hearing aid batteries can be recycled with your local CostCo audiologist.

Look for coming socials between HLAA meetings.  Socials will be announced here and on our yahoo email list.

Our next meeting date and topic will be announced soon, stay tuned!

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Stress Management During the Holidays

The holidays are happy times but they can also be stressful. We overeat, we over spend, we say yes when we should say no. I remember a time when my ex-husband asked me to wait to shop for Christmas and finally gave me the go ahead the 23rd of December to shop. I remember sitting down on a bench in the middle of Wal-Mart crying my eyes out in a sea of people. Never had I waited so long to shop and I never did it again. That’s one example of typical holiday stress for everyone.

Having a hearing loss on top of it adds that much more stress. Music blares from speakers in every store, the extra people and chatter with all the check out counters open with beeping cash registers create a cacophony of noise to my ears. With my hearing aids, I find myself clenching my teeth trying to put up with the extra clamor. Without my hearing aids, I shop in peace but I also don’t hear what people say to me either.

Then there’s the big family dinner where everyone seems to be talking and enjoying the conversation but the hard of hearing person feels alone in the midst of family. We want so much to be a part of it all; the jokes, the stories and the family gossip but it’s impossible. And it hurts when we miss something, especially when a relative gives us the ol’ “Never mind, it’s not important” or our significant other tells us, “I’ll tell you later,” and later never comes.

If all this sounds familiar to you, come to our next meeting, this Saturday 9am-11 at the Sanderson Center. Our topic is “Holiday Stress Management.” We will be in the Conference Room (looped room was already reserved darn it!), we have CART (captions) and the FM system.

In the meantime, here’s a few links to check out:

Arlene Romof, holiday tips for the hard of hearing:  http://www.hearingloss.org/sites/default/files/docs/Holiday_MadnessRomoff_ND08.pdf

Tips for surviving holiday stress:  http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/12/23/9-tips-for-surviving-holiday-stress/

happy holidays

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Sharing Information From Our Last Meeting

Last Saturday morning we had our meeting and it’s topic was Don’t Be a Victim. Dr. Susan Chilton led the discussion and Julia Stepp provided CART.  Our discussions ranged from not getting the punchline, not hearing alarms, to relatives who refuse to repeat and how we are treated at businesses. We talked about drive thrus, staying safe at home and pre-boarding on planes. Coping skills were discussed afterward, working to improve our situations. Our topic discussion lasted about an hour.

Susan Chilton

Dr. Susan Chilton with a CART backdrop and our favorite CART person, Julia.

attendees meeting 9-14-13 3

Later we discussed the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Festival being held at the Sanderson Center Saturday, September 21st from 11-7. HLAA will have a booth at the event and we are hoping to attract more hard of hearing people to our chapter. Tomorrow I will post a schedule of presentations on our website (www.hearinglossutah.com) as well as parking instructions. CART will be available during presentations and Listen Tech is looping a portion of the gym for us as well. If you haven’t experienced a loop yet, Saturday is your chance. Crafts will be on sale made by our own community. Be sure to join us, it will be a fun, fun day. Stop by our HLAA table and say hi.

Utah-CAN successfully got captions in the Rice-Eccles stadium. The first captioned game was August 29. Users picked up a tablet which relayed the captions. More about this later on our HLAA website.

Loop Utah, a new movement here in Salt Lake is underway. The official kick off will be at the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Festival at 4:00 pm. Learn more about loops, how they work, what we hope to accomplish and you can help.

There are officially 18 hard of hearing assistants in Utah spread throughout the state. They will provide their areas with classes such as Living With Hearing Loss, CASE, Hearing Aids 101 and more. They hope to reach out to many people who feel lost and isolated. The Sanderson Center works hard to spread support.

Our next meeting will be November 16, from 9am-11am at the Sanderson Center in classroom B/C. Our topic that morning will be Stress Management for the Holidays.  Refreshments provided.  We hope to see you there.

Thank you.

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September 14, 2013, Our Next Meeting

The second half of the HLAA mission statement says, “We strive to improve the quality of lives of people with hearing loss through education, advocacy and self help.” We strive to meet these standards and the Salt Lake City chapter has also reformatted it’s meetings to include emotional and social needs as well. Our next meeting is September 14, 2013 from 9 a.m. to 11:00 at the Sanderson Center in the conference room. Our topic will be, “Don’t Be a Victim.”

Don’t be a victim of crime, abuse or isolation. Learn to be aware and advocate for yourself then get help as needed. We don’t have a guest speaker but Dr. Susan Chilton* will be there to help guide the discussion. We all have our personal stories to share and with our combined years of hearing loss experience, we make quite the expert. Together, we will develop information and make connections.

Refreshments will available and we will mingle before the meeting, during the break and afterward. We look forward to seeing you there so please mark your calendars.

 

*Dr. Susan Chilton received her Ph.D. in Educational Administration with an emphasis in Educational Psychology. She worked in the Jordan School district for 34 years. She has taught special education classes and help hundreds of students with various learning disabilities. In 1984 the district asked her to head the department and create a program to provide help and resources for at-risk students. She taught parenting classes, formed a drug prevention performance team, initiated a suicide prevention crisis line, developed teacher and student trainings on drug prevention, depression, gangs, eating disorders, crisis intervention, etc. And she organized a district crisis team that was first on the scene of any crisis that affected students and teachers. Her department became the place to which all JSD educators, students, and parents turned for answers and interventions. She has served on many boards in our state, including Suicide Prevention, Parents Helping Parents, Wasatch Canyon Hospital, and others.

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Meeting 7-13-13

Last night Mike and Donna hosted a social/meeting at their house offering HLAA members dinner.  We were supposed to eat outside in the nice summer weather but an oncoming thunderstorm chased us inside.

Mike and Donna

dinner

kids

A few of us brought kids who were thoroughly entertained in the play nook under the stairs.  We visited with one another and shared news over a nice meal.

 company for dinner

nice gathering

dinner guests

Afterwards we had a meeting, CART was provided. Thanks Julia!!!

Julia setting up CART

During the meeting portion we elected a new president to the chapter, Chelle George.

The outreach committee outlined their efforts; creating this website/blog and a FaceBook page to which many will get a invite to over the next few weeks or so.  They also want to get together some published material to handout in the future.  The program committee reported on our next meeting.

We discussed a request by Utah-CAN coming up for help with printing materials for outreach. A budget will be coming soon for us to vote on.

After business was concluded, we hooked up this website to the large TV to share with everyone for the first time.

Before we left, we had a group picture taken. Don’t you just love the smiling faces?

Back row: Mike, Kristen, Chelle, Kathy and her husband Fred, Linda. Front row: Donna, Kristel, Helen, Julia.

Back row: Mike, Kristen, Chelle, Kathy and her husband Fred, Linda. Front row: Donna, Kristel, Helen, Julia.

Our next meeting is September 14, 2013 from 9 a.m. to 11:00 at the Sanderson Center.  Our topic: Don’t Let Yourself be a Victim (Crime Prevention; Family Abuse Prevention; Invisibility Prevention /advocating for self). Please mark you calendars and we hope to see you there.