Richard E. Carmen, AuD, an audiologist, publisher, and author, was recently interviewed for Bottomline Health magazine’s upcoming September 2012 edition about Carmen’s book How Hearing Loss
Impacts Relationships—Motivating Your Loved One.
The article’s title, “Is Your Loved One’s Hearing Loss Driving You Nuts? – Secrets to Making a Hearing Aid Much More Appealing,” addresses a loved one’s resistance to getting hearing aids.
As hearing health professionals know, the industry still faces an overwhelming number of patients who don’t want hearing aids. The article includes some of Carmen’s guidelines to help family members assist loved ones resistant to seeking help. The recommendations include:
Addressing any potential underlying issues of codependence.
Using correct and current information about hearing aids instead of basing decisions on rumors.
Videotaping a loved one while struggling to hear at a family gathering, and later viewing it privately with the loved one to demonstrate the depth of the problem.
If nothing else works, the article suggests trying a family intervention, where, without prior warning to the person with hearing loss, family members meet with the person for 10 to 15 minutes to talk about how the problem has affected them. Carmen emphasizes that the overall message of the meeting should be how much the family members care and want a better quality of life for the person with hearing loss, as well as for themselves.
Carmen’s book is available to hearing industry professionals through Auricle Ink Publishers at www.hearingproblems.com, and affiliated distributors.
SOURCE: Auricle Ink Publishers
