Hello,

I am Helan Craggs the chairperson of the National Technical Officer Association . I am a Social Worker with the Deaf in Wigan Council where I have been here since 2004. I work in the Sensory Team alongside a Social Worker for Visual Impaired people, Visual Rehabilitation Workers and Support Workers. I work with people who are Deaf/deaf and have additional visual loss including people who are, profoundly Deaf, hard of hearing, deafened, deafblind, Blind, partially sighted including children and adults. This includes assessing and demonstrating supplying and fitting specialist equipment to D/deaf people.

In addition to me working full time I have commenced a PG Dip BSL/English Interpreting and Translation on a part time basis.

The Technical Officer meetings are an invaluable resource in liaising with others who work in this field and gaining knowledge about the pros and cons of specific specialist equipment. So those of you who have not yet come along to a meeting please do.

Thanks to Amanda for the support she has given me in the handover as the last chair.

Any Queries please contact me an if I can't help I will find someone that will.

Bye for now.