PORA! workshops in 2014 – Meeting the Cochlear Implant Fitting Expert

Dear followers and friends of the PORA! community, Dear parents! Today we are pleased to be announcing a new series of workshops named ‘Expert workshops and online consultations on cochlear implant fitting’.

This new Project initiated by Dr. Monika Lehnhardt (Prof. Ernst Lehnhardt Foundation) in cooperation with the University Medical Center of Freiburg and the Freiburg Cochlear Implant Center is designed to give you access to the newest fitting and rehabilitation methods, as well as provide the option of individual counseling.

We welcome parents and experts to meetings with German and Russian-speaking expert Alex Teichrieb, who will present on the Freiburg CI center: its history, departments, methods and meeting the needs of recipients (children, parents, adults and seniors) for fitting and rehabilitation after a CI. This webinar is set to be the first of the planned monthly meetings with Mr. Teichrieb.

The ENT department of the Freiburg University Clinic has been using cochlear implants since 1993. Deaf children are normally operated on at the age of 10-14 months. Hearing-imapired adults can also be eligible for a CI. “Every year we have 200 to 250 new patients, who receive lifelong care with us”, says implanting surgeon Prof. Laszig. Technicians, SLPs are other experts work in an intense and meticulous way, especially with children who had had no previous experience with sound. To date, more than 2000 cochlear implantations have been carried out in Freiburg.

“We see the personality of a hard of hearing or deaf person in a holistic way. The guiding principle of a Freiburg rehabilitation is to provide a CI recipient with an opportunity for their best hearing, so that they achieve free speech understanding in all the daily hearing situations. One must be active in all day to day  scenarios where hearing is required. Our vantage point is the individual capacity of each personality, and our therapy accounts for social and cultural contexts. Involving the family into the treatment is a substantial part of the rehabilitation. We would like to meet the needs of everyone who entrusts us with their care. Naturally, the attitude to patients is a respectful and amicable one. Our work as professionals is transparent for the recipient; therefore, this facilitates a sense of responsibility for one’s therapy outcome’. Photo source: Freiburg CI center official website.

www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/icf/live/index.html