LOANER HEARING AID PROGRAM
Let’s be honest, children with hearing aids present unique challenges! The devices get dropped, or lost, or become a chew toy for the family pet. As parents we have all been there at one point or another so as a foundation, FHSR steps in to fund loaner hearing aid banks at pediatric clinics in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. We feel it is crucial for children with hearing loss not to miss a sound or a beat in the ordinary rhythm of their lives due to broken or lost hearing aids.
Loaner Hearing Aid Banks: Broken or Lost –
We help to get you covered
Pediatric loaner hearing aid banks provide a bridge for the time between a broken or lost hearing aid and repair or replacement. Depending on each families’ financial health, health insurance and the manufacturers’ warranty requirements, time can be of the essence, so we help fund loaner hearing aid banks to make sure that a child does not have to go without hearing while their aid is being repaired or replaced.  FHSR is committed to making sure that no child has to miss out on hearing while the original aid is being repaired or replaced no matter if this is a few days, months or a year. Â
Cochlear Implant Candidate Process -
We help to get you covered
For children who are deaf and going through the cochlear implant candidacy process, there is a requirement for a waiting period from identification to implantation during which the child is to wear hearing aids. The children who are enrolled in the cochlear implant program are able to utilize loaner hearing aids from the hearing aid banks during this period so the families do not have to incur the expense of purchasing hearing aids that will only be used for a short period of time.Â
The Chicagoland loaner hearing aid banks are there for our families in their time of need while they travel a path of implantation or are in the process of repair / replacement, helping to relieve the stress of their child not being able to hear and fully participate in life’s activities. Â
A single hearing aid can be loaned out many times meeting a child’s hearing needs seamlessly!Â
FHSR is proud to support these banks throughout Chicago and the suburbs. Â
FHSR LOANER HEARING AID BANK GRANT RECIPIENTS
SCOPE Speech & Hearing Clinic (SCOPE – Student Community Outreach Program of Excellence)
SCOPEs provide audiology and speech-language pathology diagnostic and treatment services for patients of all ages in English and Spanish.
These services are provided by supervised graduate student clinicians in the audiology and speech-language pathology programs at Rush University. All supervisors are licensed and accredited in their respective fields.
The SCOPE Speech & Hearing Clinic seeks to provide exceptional patient- and family-centered care to underserved clinic populations by increasing accessibility to intervention services while simultaneously providing excellence in student clinical training through evidence- based evaluation and treatment principles, community engagement, advocacy, and scholarship.
SCOPEs accept the following patients: uninsured, Medicaid*, and Medicare. *Patients must have already sought services elsewhere and were subjected to a long-wait list and/or received limited services.
With the support of FHSR, Lurie Children’s was able to provide loaner hearing aids to patients who needed them. Hearing aids that are loaned out are important for patients to bridge the gap between evaluation and actual cochlear implantation and while children have their hearing aids repaired or replaced. Over 200 hearing aids were lent out to 150 patients in 2021. All who received them were grateful for this opportunity to have a device temporarily.
The FHSR Associate Board Members were excited to present a $10,000 check to the Audiology team at Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn to support their Loaner Hearing Aid Bank.
This amazing gift will allow children who rely on hearing aids to have a temporary replacement if theirs is lost or broken so they can safely and fully participate in all aspects of life! FHSR is proud to make it’s second annual gift to such this terrific clinical team and their patients! .
CLINICAL RESOURCES
FHSR is providing 5 CPS schools with spare batteries and chargers for cochlear implant devices from:
Advanced BionicsÂ
Cochlear Americas
Med-EL
We are invested in the full inclusion of deaf and hard of hearing children in all aspects of life.
We hope this makes learning a little easier for everyone.Â
FHSR is providing Cochlear Implant Battery Kits to Five Chicago Public Schools (CPS)
We know it’s hard enough to get a kid out the door in the morning, But….
If your child uses an assistive listening device, their safety and education depend on having their device(s) on and charged.Â
HEARING TECHNOLOGY
Hearing Technology is changing rapidly from captioning to cochlear implants, loops to language software. Visit our blog to learn more and donate to the Loaner Hearing Aid program to help keep the technology available for all children with hearing loss.
