6month DD diagnosed severely deaf - can you help?

[Murphee]

My lovely friend's lovely daughter has recently been diagnosed as severely deaf and will have hearing aids for the rest of her life. Although she is only 6 months they already have a speech therapist visiting her twice a week. My friend is English but lives in Naples (married to an Italian)and feels very isolated - she has been forced to give up work and has no support network. They have another DD-4yrs and my friend feels guilty that she is unable to give her older DD enough attention. There are no clinics or patient/parent groups where she lives and originally the Italian doctors told her the bilingual household would be a problem. At this point her husband agreed to move to England where there would be more support but following a visit to Great Ormond Street where the specialist contradicted this he has changed his mind - bad for my friend and the strain is showing on the relationship. Purpose of this message is to (a) see if there are any MNers with experience of deafness who might be able to offer advice; (b) see if there are any MNers in Italy, especially Naples? My friend will have internet at home within two weeks - meanwhile I am receiving messages for her. THANK YOU! I posted this in PARENTING this morning and Moondog had suggested I might get a larger response posting it here as well. Murph

[fransmom]

hope your friend is ok murph