SOS lost hearing aids (again)
This week I was talking to some doctors in a hospital that specialises in care of older people. We were discussing the new research that says it's very important to use hearing aids when they are needed in order to delay the onset of dementia symptoms.
More important than many of the things that are headlined in the news all the time. Immediately accessible and affordable.
I could hear their frustration when they spoke about the fact that many families remove the hearing aids and take them home when a person is admitted to hospital because the hearing aids almost always go missing. They are so tiny and so expensive that it's hard to keep track of them and just not financially viable to leave them there.
We talked about kit that you can buy which can be used in hospital to help communicate with people who have hearing difficulties if they don’t have a hearing aid. One enterprising doctor showed how she could use her stethoscope by putting the earpieces in the patient's ear and talking into the other end. Surely there must be a better way of helping people who are very likely to lose their hearing aids?
One ward had an amplified hearing assistance device, which is a box attached to headphones. It picks up sounds from the environment. It can be kept as ward equipment and used for consecutive patients.
If anyone out there has any better ideas about how to tackle this problem let us know! And we will share with other readers. Come on @RNID! @royaldeaf! What can you do for us?
