Seven in ten older Australians have hearing loss, but the staff of age care service providers and in hospitals are seldom sufficiently trained to help.
It’s often not realised that even a slight to moderate hearing impairment, if not managed, can inhibit social interaction resulting in significantly reduced quality of life and may also increase depression and dementia.
The long-standing lack of adequate hearing assistance to residents who need it, has resulted in a common misconception that addressing this need is largely a matter for residents and their families. The fact that some care staff do however provide effective hearing assistance in the course of their normal duties demonstrates that this assistance can be provided as part of normal personal care. There is also a common misconception that attending to the needs of hearing impaired residents increases the already heavy workload of care staff. In fact, hearing assistance, if undertaken systematically and competently, adds little additional work and brings enormous benefit for both staff and residents. Home care staff will need the same training as their residential counterparts.
An effective hearing assistance program will benefit staff as well as those they care for and if performed systematically should not be time consuming.
Free resources
We have a range of free training resources in hearing assistance for nurses and other care staff in aged care services and hospitals. The resources include learning modules, a good practice guide and an instructional video.
The resources are also useful for carers and volunteers who work with hearing impaired people in the community.
You can find these resources on our training resources page