I was sitting at my desk working on my list, the one I have been keeping most of my life. I never get to cross off all the items, and have even added to the list so I can have something to eliminate. Has to do with feeling some sense of accomplishment. My darling daughter stuck her head in the door, said something, and laughed. I replied, as I often do, “What did you say?” She turned back and said ‘’No hearing aids? Never mind.” I tried to figure out if I wanted to respond. Couldn’t have been important or she would have repeated her comment. But she sounded annoyed and I muttered something like big deal and then I was annoyed too.
Yes, I did have my hearing aids in my ears, but that was not a guarantee that I would hear everything that was said to me or anything at all for that matter. That is a function of the situation: the speaker, the environment, and the listener, lots of places for a good old communication glitch. Ironically it is usually the listener who is blamed and there are a few problems rightly assigned to them or their hearing device. This can include bad or uncharged batteries, poor fit or position, or an aid that just doesn’t have enough oomph for the particular loss it is supposed to fix. This generally translates to higher price. Not surprising.
I think it is an area of aging that could use some attention. This includes the listener recognizing that with hearing aids, the hearing environment has changed and their behavior should change as well. And all of us need to recognize the issues. 25% of those between 65 and 75 have some hearing loss, and if still around at 75 chances are half will be afflicted. Poor hearing has been blamed for falls, depression and social isolation, and the longer the delay to get aids, the less improvement is possible. We need rules of the road sooner rather than later. Maybe cards the hearing impaired could hand out to educate the speaker.
Contemporary hearing aids date from the 1990’s and the current market has in-ear, behind the ear, over the ear, some with ear molds, Bluetooth connections, even a telecoil which fits a facility with a hearing coil that is accessible to the audience. Attending a movie is often too loud and incomprehensible. There is no doubt that the growing size of the market and the ingenuity of developers will add to the variety (and the cost) though the FDA has approved Over The Counter models that can be bought on line without prescriptions or exams and at significantly lower cost.
As a faithful (??) wearer of hearing aids since 2016 I think I can suggest some content for cards and training sessions.
For the speaker: responsibility for noise awareness, other talkers, traffic, TV, your mouth full, not expect a wall to conduct sound , look at the listener, slow down your speech as it is easier: use appropriate body movements to enhance meaning, smile, don’t ever say never mind and make the listener feel pointless.
For the listener: look at the speaker, have agreed signals for miscomprehension, ask speaker to wait if you haven’t got your hearing aids on, be consistent about wearing them, learn and practice how to care for your aids and your ears.
There probably should be some rules for groups, if only a way to bring awareness that there are hearing impaired among them. And the Baby Boomers, all 70 million plus of them now turning 75 are maybe paying the price for all that rock and roll. Be kind.
One of the concerns in the literature about hearing aids is that having to wear them 13 a stigma, another sign of old age that we would rather not admit we need. I think that is going away, and I believe we will begin to see variety and multi task features (appointment book in ear?) as we do with the rest of the wearable technology we use.
I will let you know when the cards get done.