In honor of Better Hearing and Speech Month this May, five major hearing health advocacy agencies are joining forces for Better Hearing & Speech Month.
The Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA), American Academy of Audiology (AAA), American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and the Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) have launched a national campaign to encourage individuals to pledge online to get their hearing, or a loved one’s hearing, tested.
To take the pledge, visit: http://hhf.org/hearing_pledge.
The HHF website will provide resources to help those taking the pledge find local hearing healthcare professionals, as well as topics to discuss with their providers. In addition, for every person who takes the pledge, HealthyHearing.com, an online resource for hearing health, will donate $1 to HHF to support its research to prevent and cure hearing loss.
There are several points that can be shared on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, which may encourage people to take the pledge:
- Only 16% of physicians routinely screen for hearing loss.
- 20% of preschoolers fail hearing screenings.
- 72% of people attending senior centers fail the hearing screening.
- People with a mild hearing loss are twice as likely to develop dementia; the likelihood to develop dementia increases with the severity of the hearing loss.
- Hearing loss can lead to depression and social isolation.
For more information or to see how you can get involved, visit: http://hhf.org/hearing_pledge.
SOURCE: Hearing Health Foundation (HHF)
