Hearing Healthcare Professionals | Physicians | Press

Peer Mentoring Program (Success Stories)

Help us to develop a database of success stories across all walks of life!

A Chance to Change Lives

Your patients do not have to be nationally or even locally famous to assist the Better Hearing Institute in changing lives. We are interested in hearing from people in all walks of life. If you have a motivating story to share please contact us by letter with a short description of the patient and why you are nominating them for a BHI success story. Please include contact information for both yourself and the patient via the HIPPA release form below. Your patient’s story could make a difference in someone else’s life! Before selecting patients for referral please consider the following selection criteria:

• The person must want to help others through articulation of their story without compensation. But they may be motivated to see their story on a National website and perhaps in the press.
• We would prefer success stories of working Americans since the majority of people with hearing loss are working. We will however, accept some successful housewives and students in school with a special story to tell.
• The person must be willing to answer in writing and by email (this is for editing purposes) the answers to 7 key questions regarding their hearing loss and their personal solution. Without answers to these questions we simply do not have a story. Unfortunately we currently do not have the staff to solicit the story through interview. If you have a patient unable to write their story for us you may interview them and submit their answers on their behalf. (For a list of questions for local interview contact Sergei Kochkin at skochkin@betterhearing.org)
• The patient must be motivated. We will contact them once for their story; we simply do not have the staff for follow-ups.

Step 1: Download our Personal Success Story flyer and HIPAA release and share it with your patient.

Step 2: Send the completed HIPAA release with contact information and a cover letter introducing your patient to:

Sergei Kochkin, Ph.D., Executive Director
Better Hearing Institute
790 Frontage Road, Suite 104
Northfield, IL 60093

If you want to discuss the appropriateness of a particular success story please contact Sergei in advance:

Phone: 847-441-4385 
Email: skochkin@betterhearing.org

Step 3: By mail we will send your patient a contract of agreement, samples of BHI literature, a short background survey regarding their hearing loss and hearing loss solution, and also a request for press photographs. This will form the basis of our campaign, to be shared with our PR firm, and ultimately become the success story write-up.

Step 4: We will edit their story for our website and seek their approval for the final write-up. At times we will email them for clarification on certain issues.

Step 5: For every successful referral received (contract, success story and press photos) we will give the referring hearing health professional:

• 100 free copies of our award winning “Your Guide to Better Hearing” ($155 value) OR 10 free physician referral kits including the hearing healthcare professional training program (if you are not already a member of the BHI Physician Referral Development Program) ($125 value)

The ultimate reward is that your referred patient could make a difference in motivating America’s 24 million people with untreated hearing loss to seek help. Please understand that the BHI reserves the right to reject submitted success stories if they do not fit our national public relations objectives.

Success stories accepted and received will be categorized by occupation at the following link: Success.