Our coaches are David and Judi Bergeron. They are the proud owners and founders of Hearing Partnership and Beauport Hearing Care. With deep personal experience of hearing loss and tinnitus, they share with patients what works for them in their daily lives. Therefore, they are ideal hearing coaches.
Why Coaches?
Successful treatment of hearing loss and tinnitus involves more than technology. Coaches help patients improve comfort and communication in social settings, increase success in the use of hearing assistive technology, and make life easier. Moreover, our model coordinates coaching with clinical care. Coaching helps patients learn and practice good communication strategies. Finally, clinical recommendations are followed with hands-on guidance to help patients navigate the health care system. This guidance is often essential because patients need help to access a broad range of additional services they may need. In conclusion, coaches can mean a world of difference for those struggling with hearing loss.
Our Coaches
David Bergeron, MM, CHW, CDP
Founder and Brain Hearing Coach
David Bergeron is a CHW and social entrepreneur. He has over 20 years experience in establishing innovative state public health policy and systems redesigns. Working closely with Senator Edward Kennedy, he was co-founder of the pilot that promoted Massachusetts health care reform in the mid-1990s, Fishing Partnership Health Plan, where he also developed and headed the project’s community health worker (CHW) program for more than 15 years. A study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and conducted by Boston University researchers assessed the “feasibility of implementing a similar model with other populations” and statewide reform followed in 2006 (http://www.humanecologyreview.org/pastissues/her152/hartleyetal.pdf). Project CHWs also promoted community participation in research and other health and occupational safety strategies. As such he has convened numerous interdisciplinary collaborative research teams with community members and partners at Health Care for All, Harvard University, Boston University, MIT, University of Massachusetts, University of New Hampshire, University of Maine, and others.
Mr. Bergeron’s accomplishments have been recognized by citations of the Massachusetts Senate and community organizations. Moreover, he is a member of a family affected by hearing loss. He has worked with his wife Judi to develop a community health worker model in hearing health care. Educated in music Mr. Bergeron studied in the United States and abroad. He remains active in music. And his musical experience is well matched to appreciating the social and scientific aspects of sound and hearing. He is a member of the Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers.
Clinician and Coach
Judith A Bergeron, BC-HIS #8035, CDP Board Certified Hearing Specialist and Co-Founder
Judith A Bergeron, BC-HIS, CDP is a patient first and hearing health care professional second. She is a Tinnitus Care Provider holding a certificate in Tinnitus Activities Treatment from the International Hearing Society. In addition, she is a Dementia Care Provider, certified by the National Alliance of Dementia Care Practitioners.
Ms. Bergeron lost her hearing suddenly in her left ear when she was 11 years old. Physicians performed radical mastoid surgery to save her life from a middle ear infection. This extreme procedure involves removing the ossicular chain and part of the mastoid bone. It is rarely performed today. Then within a few years she experienced a rapid sensorineural hearing loss in her right ear. Legally deaf, she has been severely to profoundly deaf in both ears ever since. She has worn hearing aids for over 35 years. Yet most people that meet her socially have no idea she has hearing loss!
Patient Turned Provider
Judi entered the hearing health care system professionally working as a patient care coordinator. In this role she learned a great deal about patients. In addition, she often found herself providing assistance not included in her job description to help patients. Therefore, she decided to become a licensed provider. That way she could do more for people as a clinician.
Judi is now National Board Certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences. She practices at the Hearing Partnership™ pilot practice, Beauport Hearing Care™ in Magnolia, Massachusetts. Judi identifies with patients as a peer and moreover as their hearing health clinician. She believes that hearing is an art beyond just the proper use of hearing aids. In addition, it also includes the practice of communication skills and social strategies. Moreover, some patients benefit from auditory training. For patients that need amplification, hearing aids are an important first step towards a whole new world. But Judi encourages her hearing aid patients to move forward and welcome the adventure ahead. Finally, better hearing with understanding is possible.
Independent of her dispensing practice with patients, Judi is Hearing Coach, co-owner and co-founder at The Hearing Partnership™. In the public health perspective, she is a "professional patient". In addition she can be considered a hearing health care Clinician Community Health Worker. She is severely hard of hearing herself. But she is a practicing clinician who employs many CHW approaches in her hearing health care practice. The Hearing Partnership™ project is allowing Judi to share her approach with many more patients and other hearing health professionals beyond her clinical practice.
Judi is a member of the International Hearing Society and the Massachusetts Hearing Society.