After the Federal Government stopped supporting the captioning phone service known as Captel, a couple of years ago, there was no replacement. This disadvantaged many people living remotely with a hearing disability. At last this has changed, as Ian Rimes from Better Hearing Australia’s Central Coast Branch explains, below….
This now means that there are two options for seniors living remotely who are seeking a captioning phone: Everyone can apply for this GEAT funding, and get help installing it — up to $1000pa. Secondly, subscribers to either Telstra or Belong (a Telstra provider) have access to their existing videophone program, and may also qualify for funding support there.
Great news from John Nakulski, co-founder of the Konnekt Phone, that the Federal government in support of the Konnekt Captioning Videophone has created a new funding program, geat2GO, to help close the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) funding gap from My Aged Care.
This means that seniors who live in remote or rural areas can get up to $1,000 per year towards Assistive Technology, even if they cannot find a local Provider with spare “GEAT” funding. Previously, we had MANY potential customers tell us that they could not find a local provider who could help.
See https://www.indigosolutions.org.au/funding/commonwealth-home-support-programme/geat2go
This funding is in addition to The Konnekt-Telstra Captioning Videophone program which is also in place and we are now able to help many people who have severe hearing impairment or deafness. Both Telstra and Telstra-Belong customers can qualify.
I purchased one of these phones some months ago with the guidance of the NRS Transition Team. I find it great with one button dialling and hands free operation. With video as well as captioning it is a big improvement over the CapTel phone.
Kind Regards,
Ian Rimes
Better Hearing Australia Central Coast Inc.
And the attached PDF…
Konnekt-Captioning-Videophone-Flyer-Australian-version.pdf