Overcoming the stigma and fear about hearing loss
As we age a lot of things change, unfortunately, not a lot of them for the better.
The skin becomes thinner, loses fat and doesn’t look as smooth as it did in our youth.
Our hair gets grey and thin, while facial hair on women gets coarser, and men’s ear, nose and eyebrow hair gets thicker and seems to grow at a faster rate, no matter how much (or little) is left on their heads
Our eyesight often gets worse, as does our hearing.
One of those things is the odd one out. Can you guess?
When we get more wrinkles, we rush out to the chemist for the latest anti-wrinkle cream with packaging covered in scientific-sounding words and flashy T.V. advertising featuring people with flawless skin who are far too young to need it.
When our hair greys, we dye it, and where it sprouts in places we don’t want, we pluck and shave to within an inch of our lives, often buying the latest electronic gadget to help this ongoing pursuit.
We notice our eyesight is failing, we head to the optician, in fact most of us have a regular eyesight checkups throughout adulthood. If we need them, we get some glasses. We might even opt for designer frames.
And yet, when it comes to our hearing, we try to explain it away.
People On the Television
We may say people just mumble these days or television doesn’t play sound properly. We may even take to avoiding socialising as we find it more difficult to communicate. Often, we don’t even consider getting help, because when we think about hearing aids, we think of ‘elderly people’. We picture the old hearing trumpet, or the big grey boxes on the side of your head.
Andrew Nash, Population and Household Projections, Office for National Statistics said “Over the next decade, the population of most areas is set to continue growing” adding
“Our projections also show the share of people aged 65 years and over will increase almost everywhere. This information is particularly important for anyone planning local services – for example, opportunities and services for older people.”
So, as the ageing population increases, it’s important we do everything we can to overcome the stigma and fear of hearing loss. Recently, Pete Price wrote an article in the Liverpool Echo all about this.
He said:
“My first ever experience with hearing devices was the crooner Johnnie Ray who was known as the Prince of Wails in the 50s, and was a big star. He’d had an accident when he was younger that had left him partially deaf and forced him to perform with a hearing aid.
It became his calling card, they’ve come a long way since then.”
He also wrote “Last week I told you about coming to terms with my hearing loss. So now, I have got bionic ears.”
“I’ve looked around for a while to find someone who has old-fashioned values, and a good reputation to help me. I found David Quilliam, Discretion Hearing Ltd, an independent hearing aid audiologist in Southport who does home visits and has 30 years experience.
What I loved about him, because he is independent he can pick the right company for your needs. I met up with him and nothing was too much trouble.”
Pete has done a fair bit of further research into which hearing aids we’d recommended and added.
“Delving into the world of bionic ears I am actually surprised when I learnt who wears them. I’m in good company, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Clinton, Jodie Foster and Steve Martin, the list is endless.”
“It has changed my life. Thanks to Bluetooth, David Quilliam and Starkey I am now enjoying a much better quality of life.”
Getting Rid Of The Stigma
It’s about time we got rid of the stigma around hearing loss and wearing hearing aids.
We are endlessly bombarded with beauty adverts, optician adverts and hair dye adverts. We all know the jingles and slogans. Growing old with grace and comfort isn’t something to be afraid of, and we need to start considering the solutions to hearing loss as a normal part of that.
Perhaps “Should have gone to Discretion Hearing” could be a new catchphrase we all start quoting when Grandad says ‘what?’ for the 76th time over dinner!
You can read Pete’s full Liverpool Echo article here
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/overcoming-stigma-fear-hearing-loss-26983262