The Hearing Services Center was established to provide comprehensive, in-depth services related to diagnosis/evaluation, intervention/rehabilitation, amplification and listening devices/other technology, medical services and research regarding hearing loss for children and adults. Many of these services have been provided to children through LDOS for more than 50 years. The vision of the Hearing Services Center is to make these same quality, comprehensive services available to any person in our community; plus expand services in the fitting and dispensing of listening devices, research, medical services and other daily living devices for persons with a hearing loss or communication challenges.

Our Mission:

The Hearing Services Center was established to meet the growing need for "one stop" services to persons with hearing loss in an easily accessible, non-clinical setting housed in a centralized location.

Services Provided:

Ear related Medical Services
Our up-to-date otology suite is staffed by local board-certified otologists, who specialize exclusively in hearing and ear-related disorders. Our physicians treat any and all ear problems in children and adults. Our care is focused to diagnose and treat any ear problem, both through surgical and non-surgical means, to ensure that our patients have the best treatment options in our region of the United States.

Audiological Services
A full range of audiology services are available for all ages. Our experienced staff of audiologists obtains reliable results in state-of-the-art sound-treated test suites. Our Services include:

• Diagnostic testing for infants to adults
• Video Otoscopy to visualize ear canal and eardrum
• Hearing testing – pure tone and voice recognition
• Testing for disorders of dizziness and balance
• Evaluation and treatment for tinnitus or ”ringing in the ear”
• Special testing to accurately assess the integrity of the auditory system
• Dispensing of hearing aids and assistive listening devices
• Middle ear testing

Hearing Aid Evaluations, Fitting and Dispensing
Hearing aid consultation, evaluation and dispensing services are provided by our audiologists. These services include the fitting and dispensing of hearing aids systems and other listening devices custom fit to the patients needs. They are sold on a 30-day trial basis, and follow-up visits are provided at no charge for the first year.

Cochlear Implant Services
When hearing aids are not enough, a surgical cochlear implant can provide hearing potential to people with a profound hearing loss. As a regional cochlear implant center, we provide pre-implant counseling evaluation, post-implant rehabilitation, and educational outreach to individuals with cochlear implants.

Diagnostic and Evaluation
A comprehensive diagnostic and evaluation center that provides evaluations, develops diagnostic reports and makes recommendations that address communication and educational issues. Evaluations are performed by experienced speech and language pathologists and educational diagnosticians.

Speech Evaluation and Therapy
Any individual with communication difficulty can receive speech and language evaluation and therapy. Our professional staff has expertise in developing language and speech skills for individuals with hearing loss and related difficulties that impact communication, including expressive language delay (paraxial) feeding issues, speech articulation disorders and augmentative communication devices.

Dizziness and Balance Disorder Assessment
Our medical and audiological professionals are specially trained in the evaluation and treatment of balance disorders. These professionals can implement effective treatment plans for individuals who experience balance problems or dizziness.

Assistive Listening Device Center
We offer the opportunity for persons who are faced with daily living and/or communications challenges to purchase assistive devices. The devices are displayed and demonstrated. This is the only site in the region where deaf and hard-of-hearing persons are able to actually see assistive devices “hands-on”.

Types of devices include visual smoke alarms, vibrating smoke alarms, TDDs/TTYs. amplified telephones, visual signaling devices for doorbells, assistive/augmentative communications devices, and more. This service is a significant resource for deaf and hard of hearing persons in our region.

Technical Assistance
The Heuser Hearing Institute provides technical assistance and training for professionals providing services for deaf and hard of hearing children from birth to age 21 years. The technical assistance programs are funded by contacts with Kentucky's statewide birth to age three early intervention program, First Steps. This program is administered by the Department of Public Health and the State Department of Education for providers of educational services to deaf and hard of hearing students age three years to 21 years.

The First Steps project focuses on training for statewide providers, initial and primary services coordinators, and university technical assistance personnel related to the identification, characteristics, needs, assessments and appropriate intervention strategies for visually impaired/blind, deaf/hard of hearing, and deaf/blind infants and toddlers. To cover all sensory areas referred above, collaboration of personnel from the Visually Impaired Preschool (VIPS) and the federally funded statewide deaf/blind project occurred. The technical assistance component of the project focuses on providing assistance to providers serving deaf and heard of hearing children.

The contract with the Kentucky Department of Education provides statewide technical assistance for public school personnel serving deaf and hard of hearing students, in collaboration, with the Kentucky School for the Deaf outreach consultants, in the areas of cochlear implants and signing exact English vocabulary and skill development.

It is part of the mission of the Heuser Hearing Institute to make a positive impact on the services provided to persons who experience a hearing loss from birth to grave. These technical assistance contracts have created the environment for our mission to be expanded and therefore more fully realized on a statewide basis.

Learn more about hearing services available for children and adults - Hearing Services Center brochure (pdf download)

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For more information regarding The Heuser Hearing Institute write to us with the information below or email us at info@thehearinginstitute.org.