CICS
Registered Charity No. 1097619
Professionals can provide medical, technical and practical information as well as advice about cochlear implants, but they don’t live with the children twenty-four hours of each day, and cannot provide the emotional support that other parents can. In the areas of living with, and bringing up children who have cochlear implants (unilateral, simultaneous or sequential bilateral), the parents are the professionals.
Tricia Kemp and Marian Batt, parents of two of the very first children to have cochlear implants in the UK, set up the CICS Group in 1993. It became a registered charity in 2003 and is an entirely voluntary group run by parents who recognise that there is no one approach that will suit all children.
CICS provides:
- Contact, information and support for families whose children use cochlear implants and for those whose children are undergoing assessment for the procedure.
- First-hand experience of the impact of a child’s implant on family life.
- Direct contact with other families geographically, or by special situations, such as medical conditions, regardless of the location of their Implant Centre.
- Practical help with everyday issues relating to cochlear implants and hearing impairment.
- Ideas about day-to-day rehabilitation within the family setting.
- Details of relevant information days and opportunities for contact with professionals via the CICS mailing list.
- A quarterly newsletter sharing families’ experiences. articles from professionals and implant manufacturers.
- An internet circle.
- Information Days.
- Social events and activity weekends for the whole family.
- Links with other groups and adult implant users both in the U.K. and overseas.
- Assistance for professionals and students undertaking research projects.
We’re only a phone call or email away!
Further details are available from:
South: Tricia Kemp 020 8876 8605
Midlands: Carmen Burton 01332 365528
North: Deborah Faithfull 01904 744639
Scotland: Nicky Broekhuizen 0131 466 6114
Website: www.cicsgroup.org.uk
Email: info@cicsgroup.org.uk