At Starkey, we get asked many questions about hearing, hearing loss and hearing aids. So we gathered a panel of experts for a recent Starkey Sound Bites podcasts, and had them answer 10 of the most frequent ones we get.
“How can I bring up the subject of hearing loss with a loved one?” was just one that host Dave Fabry, Ph.D and Starkey’s own Dr. Archelle Georgiou and Jamie Myers, Au.D. answered. We’ve transcribed their answer below, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Dave Fabry, Ph.D. — Archelle, your last question is as follows: I think my loved one has hearing loss. How can I help them? And how do I even approach the subject with them?
Dr. Archelle Georgiou — Well, I've faced this as a daughter to my mom who has severe hearing loss. I would say that this is tricky and it's tricky because you want the person you love to feel loved and not judged.
So I would plan out the communication over a few conversations. And I would start by having a general conversation about something new that you learned about hearing. So if you're listening to this podcast, you have probably learned something about the health effects and the relationship between hearing and overall health. I won't repeat them for the fourth time, but you hopefully learned something new and you could just start a conversation about something interesting you learned about hearing, something you didn't know before.
And then in a future conversation, a few days or maybe a week later, let them know that you care about your own hearing because of what you've learned.
And then I would say, walk the talk. So you should care about your own hearing. So go to starkey.com and do your own online hearing test and share the results with your loved one who you think may have an issue. Share them, don't be embarrassed to share them, whatever they are, be transparent about it.
And then offer to see if maybe they'd like to do the same test on starkey.com so that they can get that objective information about their hearing. In my experience, when someone feels love not judged and when you give them objective evidence, then they're much more apt to at least start seriously thinking about taking the next step. So that's how I would approach it.
And for my mom it worked!
Dave Fabry, Ph.D. — Excellent. I know that's she's a successful hearing aid user.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou — Yes!
To listen to this Starkey Sound Bites podcast (as well as past and future episodes) look for it and subscribe to it wherever you get your podcasts.
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