Welcome to the Warren Center

These are the days of coats, and mittens, and at the Warren Center. you will soon find our mittens in the lobby. Our WINTER WISH MITTEN program is an easy way that anyone can get involved in helping children who are in individual or group therapy at the Warren Center.

The center’s speech pathologist use a variety of toys, games, crafts, snacks, and other materials when providing therapy to children. But we could use your help by making an in-kind donation of these items. By doing so you can help then center save money and continue to provide services to members our community struggling with speech and language issues. The center’s speech pathologist use a variety of toys, games, crafts, snacks, and other materials when providing therapy to children. But we could use your help by making an in-kind donation of these items.

Our lobby will be decorated with mittens, each with an item that we could use along with its approximate cost and where to find it. It’s easy to help! Pick up a mitten, buy the item that is listed, and bring it to the Warren Center. We really appreciate your help.

Here's a partial list: clorox clean up wipes, goldfish crackers, zip lock bags - a variety of sizes, cheerios, washable markers, little people play sets, toy musical instruments, diapers (all sizes) diaper wipes, the game candyland, big poster like paper, playdough, construction paper, glue sticks, crayons, white board markers, regular markers, laser printer, and a CELF-4 Test.

All donations to the Warren Center are tax-deductible. We are a 501(c)(3) organization. For more information call center at 941-2850 or visit our website at www.warrencenter.org. Thank you to all those who have helped in the past, and those who plan to help us this year.

Cabin Fever is something many of us in Maine experience for some part of each winter…that feeling of being stuck inside with little social interaction. It makes some of us a bit testy and others just plain depressed. Now imagine being stuck in that world all year around. Many older folks experience a similar sense of isolation as they lose their hearing and are progressively less able to interact with others. If they are on a fixed income, they may not be able to afford a hearing aid. The Warren Center’s Regional Hearing Aid Bank (ReHAB) program was started because most insurance; MaineCare and Medicare do not pay for hearing aids for adults.

At the same time, many hearing aids that once worked well for someone are now sitting in a drawer somewhere because they no longer meet that person’s hearing needs. By collecting and refurbishing those aids, the Warren Center is able to provide one behind-the-ear hearing aid to someone whose income is less than 200% of the poverty level and who would otherwise be stuck in the isolation that can come with hearing loss. Since we placed our first ReHAB aid in March 2002, we have placed an aid with over one hundred Maine residents.

The cost of testing the client’s hearing and refurbishing the aids are covered by donations we have received from United Way, The Rite-Aid Foundation, area town governments (for their own residents), and small individual donations from grateful recipients. Or current list has 48 people waiting for an aid which could translate into a two to three year wait for an aid, depending on our funding. We are desperately seeking more aids and additional funding. Your support of this program can have a direct impact on someone’s ability to escape the isolation of hearing loss this winter. Please contact the Warren Center with your hearing aid or monetary donation to this program.

A good friend to the Warren Center for Communication & Learning died this year. Joanne J. Van Namee died at the age of 82 in Bangor, March 8, 2006. She was the publisher of the Bangor Daily News, and served on many boards and organizations.

She left a living legacy. She asked that instead of flowers that friends and family should make a contribution to the Warren Center in her name. Over the last 6 months the Center has received approximately $16,000 dollars worth of donations.

The Warren Center Administrative Director Mary Poulin says, “It came just at the right time. Our infrastructure was at risk. Staff were spending up to 3 hours a day rebooting our system, and trying to make it work. I was afraid it would crash and never come back.”
Thanks to donations made by friends and family in Mrs. Van Namee’s name the center was able to upgrade its business computer system. This included the purchase of new computers for the front, administrative, business, and billings and collection offices, and a server.

Ruth Nickerson, Business Office Manager said, “ It has truly made a difference in our ability to provide efficient services to our clients. everything is at our finger tips.”

The old computers, which dated from 1999, used Windows 1998. According to Poulin, the technicians who replaced the system said it was a good thing that we hadn’t waited until next week. “They suggested we may have been that close to losing our server,” said Poulin. “Now we have a powerful server and have an in house network that works very smoothly, even our DSL is functioning better.”

How You Can Leave A Legacy
Our Annual Campaign is an important way that you can support The Warren Center for Communication & Learning. Another way you can support the center is by remembering us in you will . For more information about how to remember us in your will contact you lawyer or the center.

By Warren Center Audiologists
Dr. Amanda Samoluk, CCC-A and Dr. Kimberly Starkey, CCC-A

The quick answer is signal processing. "Digital" indicates that the analog waveform is converted into a string of numbers for processing; butthis process does not indicate that the hearing aid is superior just because it is digital.

The true benefit of digital hearing aids are not the digital signal processing it is the ability to create hearing aids with advanced features. For example, many digital hearing aids are equipped with a feed back reduction system. This system is able to monitor and cancel out that annoying squealing while the hearing aid is in the patient's ear. It can help people that struggle with feedback associated with jaw movement and close proximity to objects.

Another one of the major benefits of digital hearing aids is a noise reduction system. This will allow the hearing aid to reduce power in certain frequencies when a steady state signal or noise is detected. Also, it can help reduce annoying noises and improve speech recognition.

Additionally, digital hearing aids are a speech enhancement system. This system helps to enhance certain parts of the speech spectrum and is often why digital hearing aids are recommended for people who are struggling with clarity.

Although, digital hearing aids come with many nice bells and whistles, as with all high-tech devices high expectations often accompany them. Discussing your concerns with your audiologist and researching the products that are recommended will help you to determine if the extra cost and advanced features are right for you.