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Now Hear This!

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1 in 6 Australians are currently experiencing some form of hearing loss, and for those ageing in place, this statistic can be as high as 3 in 4[1]! Every year during the first week of March we help raise awareness around this important issue as part of Hearing Awareness Week. 

Hearing loss impacts our ability to communicate, and therefore connect and have fulfilling relationships with those around us. Whether you are receiving in-home care or through aged care services, hearing loss can limit our ability to:

  • Follow instructions given by our aged care services and our doctor
  • Enjoy a joke with friends
  • Shop with ease 

The question becomes, are these limitations something we need to live with as we get older, or are there ways that we can live better with hearing loss?

With ageing years, hearing tends to decline gradually, and so it can be hard for us to notice that things might have changed until the loss becomes quite severe. To those around us, including our in-home health care supports, it may be a little more apparent. 

Signs that you might be experiencing hearing loss include: 

  • Finding that you need to ask for repetition more frequently
  • Turning up the TV louder, compared to others preferred volume
  • Finding it harder to follow conversation when there are other noises in the room
  • Finding it harder to follow conversation in group situations
  • Finding it harder to follow conversation when you can’t face someone, such as when in the car, or even when someone is wearing a mask.

Hearing does decline as part of the normal ageing process, but that doesn’t have to make hearing loss something we should just accept and not act on. More and more research is coming out to show that maintaining hearing health has a strong correlation to maintaining cognitive health and prevention of dementia2.

Help with your hearing is readily available these days, and usually starts with a quick hearing test, which could be done online as a screening test, or in person with a qualified hearing healthcare professional like an audiologist or audiometrist who may be able to visit you for in-home health care or through aged care services. Getting an understanding of your hearing levels can be the start of understanding how to best manage your hearing health. For many people this will involve a combination of strategies to improve communication, as well as hearing devices or hearing aid use.

Hearing aids carry a lot of negative stigma unfortunately, as historically they were considered unsightly, and not very helpful to boot. These days, technology in hearing aids has come leaps and bounds, they are fully digital, which means it is computerised, and customised to each individual ear and person’s hearing needs. While a hearing aid won’t restore your hearing to the levels it may have been in your twenties, they can remove a lot of the effort needed to hear and restore clarity and volume to everyday sounds and conversation.

But it is not only up to the person with the hearing loss to take action to help create better communication; there is a lot that you can do if you know someone who lives with hearing loss to make conversations easier. A great guide to communication when talking to someone with hearing loss comes in an easy to remember acronym we love: CARM

  • Connect: Get my attention and make sure I can see your face clearly. I will understand better if we connect first and I can see you speak.
  • Articulate: Speak more clearly, not more loudly. Speaking at a moderate pace and articulating is more helpful than shouting.
  • Rephrase: If I didn’t understand what you said, try rephrasing it. Some sounds are more difficult for me to understand than others.
  • Move: Background noise makes hearing more difficult. Move conversations somewhere quiet when necessary3.

At Home Care Assistance, our Care Workers practice CARM communication to ensure the people in our care have rich and full conversations and great connections with our in-home care team as well as their loved ones. Understanding hearing loss can be a challenge for aged care facilities and in-home care services where staffing and specialised training may not always align. 

At Home Care Assistance our Care Workers, and our investment in training is second to none, which is why your loved ones are always in the best hands with us.

References:
[1] Access Economics report 2006
2 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378512219305948
3 Ida Institute

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    As a leading age care provider, Home Care Assistance offers tailored in-home care services for older Australians, enabling them to live happier and healthier lives in the comfort of their own homes. 

    We offer private and government subsidised Care Packages and have office locations that are a registered NDIS provider. Our Care Workers undergo extensive training in order to deliver unmatched in-home aged care services where people can continue ageing in place. We are proud ambassadors of the My Aged Care government funded aged care program, enabling Australians to successfully navigate the process and gain approval for in-home care support packages. Home Care Assistance offers hourly care, specialised care, Alzheimer’s and Dementia care, hospital to home care, and 24 hour in home care.

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    “Home Care Assistance are the true definition of higher class care. The team at HCA listened to our needs and we weren’t just another customer. Our carer arrives on time every time and helps with the... difficult tasks like cleaning and washing. The carer also takes us shopping so we don’t have to think about driving to the shops anymore. Thank you HCA, we don’t worry about how we will live at home anymore.”read more
    My husband had two major strokes 6 years ago which turned our lives upside down over night. two years ago we were given the opportunity to look for a provider to help us make life easier at home for... my husband. We choose a provider and had them for two years. I can't tell express enough of how that ended up causing us so much stress and anxiety as they were in this business for the wrong reasons, very money orientated as fees were astronomical and the service was equally as bad. My husband even had a bad accident on his scooter where he could of been killed at Helensvale and some low life also stole his mobile phone while he was on the ground so he could not contact anyone but not even a word from my provider to say how sorry they were to hear that, it meant nothing, like I said just in it for the money. After two years I had had enough and found a provider by the name of Home Care Assistance. We have only been with them for one month and already it has made a huge difference to our lives, the stress levels are manageable now as they are absolutely in this business of caring for the elderly and disabled for the RIGHT reasons, they have been nothing but professional, kind and caring and they actually listen to what our needs are even though they are sometimes of the chart, but what counts is that it is to make my husbands life better, he is the one who was unlucky in life to have this happen to a very kind soul at a young age. We needed help and now we have it. The director of this company Michelle and our client advisor Jourdan have been the best and I can honestly say to anyone out there looking for a provider, as there are many, don't look any further than Home Care. If anyone would like to speak to me personally, pls get in touch with HomeCare as I will gladly tell u our story and how important it is that when tragedy strikes and you are a mess, you really need that help and support. I can't thank Home Care enough for everything in such a short time. I feel blessed to have found them.read more
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    Kristi is my personal Carer who does a wonderful job and at the same time she is very caring. Kristi is like one of the family and does not need any direction, she comes and does her work in a... professional manner. I also want to say that Michelle & Jourdan who run the Carers company is the best Carer's Company I have ever been with, they are so caring in every way, I wish there were more stars I could give them Congratulations to them, Blessings Rosalie Muir.read more
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    Lovely staff
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    At the beginning of this year I interviewed several care companies searching for help with my mum who is totally dependant every day.Mum was quite resistant to the idea of having strangers coming in... to her home, she felt very uncomfortable, but I was desperate at the same timefeeling guilty. When speaking with Jourdan as we discussed HCA & theirpolicies, prices, priorities I felt that this was the right company for my mum & I. The interest in my mums needs & her fears were clearly important, which put me at ease making this new journey a little easier.From the 7th March we have received excellent care. Whatever we asked for has been received. The carers who attend to my mum are perfectly matched to her needs, she now feels safe, very comfortable & well cared for, she is also looking forward to their visits. The services we require are cleaning, meals, companionship & most of all friendliness. All of these are of a high standard. Mum & I are very grateful to all at Home Care Assistance Gold Coast. Glenis & Normaread more
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    A thank you to the team at Hone Care Assistance from the Gold Coast, for taking extrodinary measures to look after my parents. A well organised and professional manner, thank you again..
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    Highly recommend.
    Homecare assistance is a high quality company run by friendly and highly qualified faces, I could not recommend the company enough to those who need it
    So blessed. Such a wonderful team to take care of me, keeping my life simple and enabling the very best I could wish for. Thank you, Meg and Dave!
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