Help for Hearing Impairment

Hear-Hear

Hi GlasweJen

You can't really train the brain in the way you suggest, but your audiologist will be able to increase the pre-set volume of the low-battery warning tones for you, to a level that you can easily hear in the presence of noise. For most digital hearing aids, the pitch (frequency) of the tones can be varied too, so that you can choose the 'sort' of sound you would like to hear.

If you have Starkey aids, the warning tones can be changed to a voice that simply repeats the word "Battery", and you can choose Male of Female voice, American or UK English, and the pre-set volume too. Clever stuff !

naf123

Hear-Hear wrote: »

Hi GlasweJen

You can't really train the brain in the way you suggest, but your audiologist will be able to increase the pre-set volume of the low-battery warning tones for you, to a level that you can easily hear in the presence of noise. For most digital hearing aids, the pitch (frequency) of the tones can be varied too, so that you can choose the 'sort' of sound you would like to hear.

If you have Starkey aids, the warning tones can be changed to a voice that simply repeats the word "Battery", and you can choose Male of Female voice, American or UK English, and the pre-set volume too. Clever stuff !

another trick to make sure your hearing the same in both ears is if the beep sounds the same in both ears! :-) Dont give up.

Hear-Hear

I have mentioned in various posts over the last few months that significant changes were on the way for hearing aid provision in the UK, and at last it has all now been confimed - Hearing Aid provision for adults is to go the way of Spectacles provision - coming to your local town/city centre soon.

From next April (2012), your local GP consortium is required to select 3 services from a list of 8. One of those services is Adult Hearing Provision. The services transferred out of the NHS will still be funded by the Dept of Health, but supplied by private companies, charities, social enterprises, etc, etc.

The 2012-2013 year is a "transition" year, so any 3 of the 8 services can be moved in 2012, with the other 5 to follow in 2013.

Interestingly, all this was released on the same day that the phone hacking enquiry was going on in an adjacent room at Westminster. Seems the papers felt the Murdochs were more interesting than the Dept of Health release. For anyone interesed, here's a link to the D.o.H. document
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_128462.pdf
and the 8 services in total are clearly shown in section 3.1.

Guardsman

Sounds like good news what sort of hearing aids will be issued ?

Hear-Hear

Hi Guardsman,

The document released by the Dept of Health only sets out the way Adult Hearing Aid provision will work from next April. It does not dictate any clinical changes, so the actual hearing aids will remain the same. It's the method of supply that will change, not the content of supply, if you see what i mean.

The idea is that people can obtain their hearing aids much faster, they won't need to go to 'hospital' (which was always a strange concept, as there's no "illness" or "treatment" involved), and the private sector or charity or social enterprise will be able to supply the professional services more cost effectively.

Again, use the spectacles analogy. No reason for 'hospital' visits any more, unless a medical aspect is involved. The NHS fund basic eye exams and basic specs for those that need them.

For the time being, people will still be able to use the local hospital to get their hearing aids if they wish, but eventually, the hospital will be able to focus on vertibular/balance issues, paediatrics, etc, etc. Without the need to spend time on routine hearing aid supply, the 'medical' service within ENT Depts should be accessible much more quickly by those who need it. A win-win situation for all ! :T

Mrs_Arcanum

Rebel wrote: »

Just wanted to say thanks to the posters on this thread ALL of them.

Amongst other things I have recently had to have hearing aids, when I say recently I mean 3 days ago, for the first time.

I thought I was young to need them and I'm in my 50's so the young people on this thread have made me feel almost ashamed because like them I was embarrassed about needing them.

My hearing loss is the higher end, I have very good hearing at the bass range but suddenly (on the audiogram) its like my hearing fell off a cliff, it goes straight down!

Anyway I now have a pair of Oticon aids, I had a BRILLIANT audiologist named Claire, who tried to explain everything I needed to know (I haven't even read the literature she gave me, as she was so thorough)

I have a few small problems, nothing like as bad as most here, I cant feel my hands or fingers so struggle to put the aids in properly and have no chance at all without a mirror, I struggle to turn the volume down (everything seems so loud now) and my ears hurt, but after only 3 days thats not surprising (and I didn't build up gradually as I was told to at 2 or 3 hours a day), they didnt hurt to begin with so I just left them in for 8 or 9 hours the first time I used them:eek:

Anyway I guess I wanted to let others know this thread is helpful to people like me who had no idea what to expect, I've learnt by reading these posts and a lot of stuff makes more sense now

Well done on the hearing aids. Another 50 something with hearing aids here. Are yours both with moulds or does one have a mould & one a thin tube? Both being moulds can cause echoing or head in a bucket sound, worth going back to get it sorted though.

I am really struggling with the second mould this time (the old one was fine) where the thin tubed one is lovely but not good enough for 40% loss. I have otosclerosis with conductive hearing loss rather than age related loss so could opt for an operation.

Guardsman

Nobody posted here for a while not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Guardsman wrote: »

Nobody posted here for a while not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Shouldn't that be Full Sgt [ sash wallah ] Welsh Guards ?

rosieben

Guardsman wrote: »

Nobody posted here for a while not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Hopefully its a good thing and everyone has their aids sorted

Guardsman

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Shouldn't that be Full Sgt [ sash wallah ] Welsh Guards ?

Served for 29 years so managed to get a bit further than that