Making connections - Cochlear Implants

www.southampton.ac.uk/ais ais@southampton.ac.uk +44 (0)23 8059 3522

Family and friends are often interested in cochlear implants and may be keen to find out more about them.

What else can we do to help CI users?

It is good to include family and close friends in preparing to have a cochlear implant (when possible). This can reduce their worries and help them understand the process and how best to support you.

Please look at our website for further information and a link to a film about cochlear implant assessment and different people’s experiences after implantation.

If you are offered a cochlear implant and decide to go ahead it is likely that you will experience positive changes in your close The assessment pack contains information about cochlear implants, the assessment and relationships. Please let us know, however, different people’s experiences with cochlear if you experience any difficulties as our Hearing Therapist or Clinical Psychologist implants which can help inform family and can talk through your concerns with you. friends. AIS can help with informing family and close friends if the CI candidate thinks this would be useful. If you have particular concerns about children’s understanding of the implantation process, please discuss these with us.

Making connections.

Cochlear Implants: The impact on the people around you

Implant users at the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service often tell us how having a cochlear implant assessment or operation has had an impact on their friends and family. This leaflet explores how relationships with friends and family can change.

Cochlear implants do not restore normal hearing, but most cochlear implant (CI) users experience a significant improvement in their quality of life. They may feel more confident and less dependent on other family members or friends. In general family members report that relationships with the CI user gradually become less stressful. Family members may not need to write things down or be the communication aide anymore and can enjoy easier communication with the CI user. Family members and CI users have also noticed they enjoy more social activities.

Contact us Please feel free to contact us for further information.

All enquiries to: Cochlear Implant Programme University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service Building 19 Highfield Southampton so17 1bj United Kingdom Telephone: 023 8059 3522 Fax: 023 8059 9608 SMS: 07887 790 765 Email: ais@southampton.ac.uk

However, the benefits of a cochlear implant can change family relationships and friendships. This change can sometimes put a strain on a number of different relationships, which will be discussed in turn.

Partners of CI candidates/users If a partner is not able to join the assessment appointments at the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service (USAIS) they can sometimes feel anxious and left out of the process, and that they do not fully understand what is happening. This can also increase the burden on the person undergoing the assessment as they have to relay all the information to family and friends. If partners are not involved in some assessment appointments, it can be difficult for them to develop realistic expectations of the benefit of an implant. Under/overestimating what their partner should be able to hear post-implant can lead to frustrating situations for both of them.

Partners of a CI user may feel less needed post-implant. This is more common when a

partner has previously taken a very active role in supporting the CI user’s communication.

As the individual becomes more confident and more able to communicate independently they become less reliant on their partner for this support. Partners can feel as if they have lost some of the influence they had within the relationship and can sometimes feel ‘left behind’ if the CI user starts to explore social situations that they were unable to take part in before.

Immediate family of adult CI candidates/ users Family members can offer wonderful support to their adult children undergoing assessment for a cochlear implant.

It may be helpful for a family member to be present at some of the assessments, but the CI candidate will be the main focus of USAIS staff. At times, the CI candidate will be seen on their own and they should feel able to make their own decision about cochlear implantation.

Similar to partners of implant users, after implantation family may feel less needed and may have difficulty accepting the CI users greater independence.

about cochlear implants.

After implantation children may find that their relationship with their parent changes as they are no longer needed as much to be their ‘parent’s ears’. They may need reassurance that they are still wanted and needed. For example, they could help parents practice listening by identifying sounds around the home. Communication with their parent may change and children need to understand that their parent is learning to hear again and will still need to watch their face to listen to what they are saying.

Extended family and friends Family and friends are often interested in cochlear implants and may be keen to find out more about them. Relaying this sort of complex and technical information to family and friends can be difficult for CI candidates.

Family and friends may expect that the CI user will be able to hear well as soon as they have got their implant. They may not realise that CI users have to learn to hear again with the implant.

In contrast, family and friends sometimes do not appreciate how much more hearing the CI user has after the early stages of adjusting to the implant, and may need encouragement Children of adult CI candidates/users to let the CI user fully use their new level of Children of adult CI candidates may need help hearing. in understanding cochlear implantation.

Families of child CI candidates/users The child may be anxious about the implant operation, which parents may wish to talk through with their children. They may not know that the parent needs to wait for up to 4 weeks after the operation to start hearing with the implant. USAIS can provide story books for younger children to help them understand

Most parents of implanted children are pleased with the help that an implant can give to a profoundly deaf child and the positive impact on the rest of the family. However, the assessment for an implant and post-implant support process can cause strain to family

Cochlear implants do not restore normal hearing, but most cochlear implant (CI) users experience a significant improvement in their quality of life.

members. There will be frequent visits to USAIS which may mean time off work and arranging childcare for siblings who, in turn, may feel jealous or angry towards their deaf brother or sister because of all the attention they are getting and need more quality time alone with parents or family members.

Parents may feel over protective of the implanted child and give them less freedom than their other children. Professionals from USAIS will visit the implanted child at home, nursery or school which may change the usual routine of the family. Parents of children with a CI may need to take on the role of an ‘expert’ and relay quite complex information about the CI to their partners or other family members such as grandparents.

(See the ‘What else can we do to help’ section for how USAIS can help with this).

Work and employment The assessment and initial tuning stages involve a number of visits to the implant service and some employers may not understand why this is necessary. AIS can provide a letter which explains the appointments needed for assessment and initial tuning which the CI candidate can give to their employer.

Work colleagues might have high expectations of how well a person hears with a CI. They may be unaware that the CI user needs time to make sense of the new sounds that they hear. Situations like big group meetings and using the telephone might always be difficult for some CI users.

Colleagues need to be reminded of and given tips for supporting the CI user. AIS can write a letter to explain what an implant can do and how colleagues can support the CI user for the CI user to give to their employer.