hard of hearing child in St. Joe (Kansas City, St. Louis: schools, camp)

[kansas sky]

I have friends who are looking for a support group for parents of hard of hearing children in the St. Joe area. Can anyone help me out?
Thanks!

[PsychoBearcat]

I just asked my wife (she's a teacher for the SJSD) and she said try one of the following:
1. Ask the child's doctor. They should know of some.
2. Call Heartland Hospital and ask if they know of any children hearing impared groups.
3. If you can't find any in St. Joe, hospitals in Kansas City or Liberty might know. Northland St. Luke's on Barry Rd. (just off of I-29) has a pretty good sized campus that covers just about every health issue, big or small, out there.

Neither of us can think of any in town per se, but hopefully this helped a little!

[kareybear]

Here is meetup.com group that is in Shawnee KS. I am not sure how far this is but maybe they can help you. Baby Signs Club of KC (Shawnee, KS) - Meetup.com. You can always start one. I wish I had a group when I was a child. Here is a site: http://www.mcdhh.mo.gov/links.shtml and This has support group that might help as well. http://www.hearingloss.org/chapters/...t.asp?state=MO and there is school for the deaf and hard of hearing in St. Joe that might be able to help you as well.http://www.mcdhh.mo.gov/resources/sc...tm#In_Missouri

[Johnny Bananas]

Originally Posted by kansas sky

I have friends who are looking for a support group for parents of hard of hearing children in the St. Joe area. Can anyone help me out?
Thanks!

Hello there! Let me just start off by saying welcome and that I am hard-of-hearing as well. St. Joe as far as I'm concerned does not have any support groups in the area because due to the fact there is no deaf population (as of last summer...). There is a camp that runs in July for the deaf and hard-of-hearing but that's the only time there are deaf people around.

One poster mentioned Shawnee. Yes there are some support groups around Shawnee (as well as around Shawnee) but that is at least an hour and a half drive (blech!). Olathe has the dominant deaf population in the metro area of Kansas City. I know St. Louis has a good deaf population too but I would suppose that is quite farther.

Let me see if I can find my files that my parents have from before about support groups. They didn't need them as I can hear sufficiently enough.

EDIT: Just saw that you're from Manhatten so if you don't mind me asking why are you interested in St. Joe for support groups? Moving there? Olathe is MUCH closer (about 3 hours) than St. Joeseph(4.5 hours).

[kansas sky]

Thank you for all your help.

I'm not looking for a support group for myself. My best friend lives in St. Joe. Her son was just diagnosed with significant hearing loss in both ears, though he's doing well with hearing aids at this point. It's just that she has so many worries and concerns and I feel like only a parent who's been in her shoes can really help her.