Help Guide for family & friends

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Here's some helpful information for you:

• It's okay for you to feel frustrated or challenged - communicating with a person who has hearing loss can indeed be difficult. 

• It can take several years for someone with hearing impairment to accept their hearing problem.  Facing up to hearing loss and seeking help isn't easy.  At Clarity, we understand the physical and emotional difficulties that can result from hearing loss, not only for the individual concerned but also for their family and friends.

• Initially it's easy for people to brush off their hearing problem.  It can be easy to accommodate a hearing loss for some time because most hearing loss occurs gradually and often only affects the higher pitches at first.  People can pick up on visual cues in conversations - such as lip reading, body language and gestures to help them figure out what's being said.  It's also possible to fill in any missing gaps based on the context of the sentence.

• Early signs of hearing loss include turning up the television volume more and more, or the car stereo.  Often women's voices or younger children's voices are harder to understand and there may be accusations such as 'you're mumbling' or 'you're not speaking loudly enough' or 'you're speaking too fast' or 'face me when you're speaking to me' or 'you never told me that'.  Do any of these sound familiar?

• If the hearing problem isn't addressed it can lead to withdrawal and isolation because it's easier to avoid situations where following conversation might be difficult; rather than looking silly if they mishear and end up getting the wrong end of the stick.

• Many people are still reluctant to admit to hearing problems despite the drawbacks because they're worried that others might confuse hearing loss with another physical condition or even an intellectual disability. 

• At the end of the day, it's about enjoyment of life and being able to communicate and be a part of things.  Getting help for a hearing problem can make things so much easier for everyone.

• It may be reassuring for your loved one to know that they're not alone in being reluctant to do something about their hearing loss.  Find out more about how other people felt when they first came in to get their hearing checked or to find out how others felt about wearing hearing aids for the first time.

• At Clarity we encourage our patients to bring family or friends with them to appointments.  This way you are able to better understand the ins and outs of the hearing loss and can support the patient in their decision making, as you know them so well.  We use equipment that can simulate for you how your family member/friend hears voices and other sounds - this is likely to be an eye-opener for you and will let you understand why you get asked to repeat yourself or speak a bit louder.

• If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us or phone us on 09 360 1124 (Auckland) or 07 542 1122 (Bay of Plenty) or you could request an appointment online and we will respond as soon as possible.