Hello, I'm Chris Kenopic, President and CEO of the Canadian Hearing Society (CHS).

I'm here today to inform you CHS team has been working hard because October 6th, 2011 is the provincial election.

A potential change in government may occur.

CHS has worked hard to encourage the government to focus more attention and funding on the services for mental health services like CONNECT.

CHS has CONNECT services in Ontario, but unfortunately limited to certain regions.  Service has not been possible across all of Ontario.

Across Ontario, there is a great need for more services for the Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing to enhance mental health.

Due to the lack of available local services, some are forced to travel to other cities, go to distant offices, or just can't afford it at all, amongst many other obstacles.

Other mainstream offices may have mental health services, but are not always suitable for the Deaf or hard of hearing.

They have limited or no access, and their services are not be as appropriate for the Deaf or hard of hearing as CONNECT.

We're also trying to address court issues such as the lack of access and communication for the Deaf and hard of hearing when in court, hospitals, and so on.  Unfortunately, there have been many examples to choose from.

Across Ontario, the term "hearing loss" is often associated with getting older.  Schools are not teaching how to accommodate for hearing loss.

Now, here at CHS, we have set up an election platform to help canvas the election candidates.

We hope that you will join us by going to www.chs.ca or watching CHSTV, where we will post more information to help you gather more information and ask the right questions to the candidates in order to increase mental health awareness and funding for the Deaf and hard of hearing.

CHS can't do it alone;  We need your help in showing them that the whole community stands together on this issue.

We will continue with the campaign up to the election on October 6, but won't stop there.  We will continue to remind the candidates on these issues, and their campaign promises for CHS services.

Thank you for watching.