Tuesday, 8 October 2024

We started the meeting by welcoming members, Preeti and Dalia to their first group meeting.

Kate went through some key highlights of what has happened since our last meeting, which included information and photos from our exhibit at the New Forest Show in July. We have new ALL_EARS@UoS badges and pull up banner for public engagement activities. On Thursday evening last week, the ALL_EARS@UoS team went to the Vice Chancellor’s Awards evening St Mary’s Stadium as we were shortlisted for an award in the Public Good and Social Mobility category. We didn’t win but Dr Mary Grasmeder won for her dedication to developing the REVs test and supporting patients at USAIS. Congratulations Mary. Finally, an article about our group, co-written by members of ALL_EARS is now on the CIICA website.

Kate outlined the meeting objectives which were to:

• reflect on and discuss the past, present and future of ALL_EARS@UoS
• discuss work carried out by Sue Boswell and Southern Counties Cochlear Implant Support Group
• discuss ongoing and new research projects

For activity 1, the aim was reflect on and discuss the impact, effectiveness and engagement of the group. We discussed the previous formal evaluation we did in May 2023 which is now published and highlighted the achievements of the group up until now. Group members got into small groups and discussed:

• what is working?
• what could be improved?
• what can we learn from ALL_EARS@UoS group for when we engage with young people?

After time for plenty of discussion, the groups shared their thoughts with the whole group. This feedback will be used to reflect on how we are doing and look to see how we can improve going forwards.

After a coffee break, Sue Boswell (a group member) updated the group on the work she and members of Southern Counties Cochlear Implant Support Group have been doing following discussion we had in previous meetings about barrier to cochlear implant referrals and uptake. Sue sent a letter to eight local Audiology departments informing them of Southern Counties Cochlear Implant Support and Social Group and asking them to share the group’s poster with patients who are referred to USAIS and also to patients that have been offered a referral but choose not to go forward with it. We discussed the importance of peer support at the early stages of the cochlear implant process.

In the final part of the meeting, Kate updated the group on ongoing research projects and highlighted an opportunity for involvement in a new project. Before we closed, Kate shared feedback from Dr Sarah Worsfold (USAIS) on the work they have been doing at USAIS to improve communication with patients over 75 years old and how the feedback from ALL_EARS@UoS is contributing to this.