After learning your child is deaf or hard of hearing you may have many questions. Our Parent Mentors are here to help with our free Program. It can be reassuring to speak with another parent, someone who has travelled a similar path and can provide unbiased information and support during this time. Trained Parent Mentors are available to meet with families through one-on-one visits, online or by phone. This can take place in your home, in your community, at an Early Intervention Centre playgroup and family network events.
Did you know?
Over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents – parents who may have never even met a deaf person before, let alone known how to raise one.
Being told that your baby has hearing loss can be very confronting, and parents enter an entirely new world of diagnoses, medical appointments, advice, and services.
Families often struggle with related issues such as the impact on siblings and wider family members, and need support in how to manage their new situation.
Parent mentoring offers a much-needed source of support, advice, and comfort at a time when parents are getting their heads around a whole new world.
About Parent Mentoring
Our Parent Mentor Program helps to link families up with parents who have lived experience of raising a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. For parents, it is important to be able to communicate with someone who understands what a family goes through – someone who understands the fears, the concerns, the challenges, and who can let them know that everything is going to be alright.
Many families are overwhelmed by the news of a diagnosis and the highly medicalised settings they encounter. Families tell us that it makes a big difference when they connect with a Parent Mentor who provides a much-needed human face and unbiased support.
Over the past three years, our Parent Mentors have provided their services to individual families, in group settings, and over the phone – with an impressive growth from 934 occasions of service to 3,300 occasions of service in 2021–2022.
Hear about parent mentoring from other parents
“…speaking to another parent normalised everything for me. I felt connected and I had a sense of belonging. By talking to another parent, I got the gift of empowerment and strength, which is what every child needs from their parents.”
“It was really comforting knowing she’d been through pretty much the same thing we were going through with our son. Just knowing that down the track we could be in the same place, where we’re not panicking that we are not providing the right support for our son.”
“There was always someone there that knew what it was like to have a child with a hearing loss.”
“I am so glad that I got put onto the Parent Mentor Program because they just listened to me and listened to my story. I am so grateful. Having a neutral third party to just talk to has been a godsend.”
“When my second son was diagnosed with a profound bi-lateral hearing loss, it was such a confronting experience. When he was a month old, we spent hours in the hospital struggling to understand all the information being relayed by a string of specialists. Then we met our Parent Mentor – for the first time since the diagnosis, I thought, this is someone who really knows how overwhelmed you can feel.
We appreciated how fortunate we were to have so much support and technology available, but it was so important to talk with a parent who could put it all into perspective, to help us feel much more positive about our son’s future and to feel hope. Now, he is doing so well.”
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