5 Reasons Your Loved One May Be Resistant to Hearing Aids and What to Do About it

Updated 4/4/2022

As a human sense, hearing is paramount in the daily lives of individuals. You should, however, note that many things can impair an individual and lead to loss of hearing. Seeking treatment, in this case, becomes vital. You can effectively utilize the different treatment approaches and devices to address your hearing problem. The availability and use of hearing aids should encourage you to seek treatment and help.

While looking for and using hearing aids is crucial, learning about the different aspects that define them is also important. You improve the hearing aid power by choosing and using the right device. As you seek medical treatment, ensure you gather information on how and where to get the hearing aids. Check the top rated hearing aid brands against their qualities to get the best one for your needs.

Seek professional guidance to save time and resources and learn how to get cheap hearing aids for your needs. Besides buying from the stores around you, look for facilities and organizations that implement programs to help people with heating issues. You can get quality hearing aids and other devices through the programs. Through consultation and specialist guidance, you learn how to get your hearing better and lead a productive life in the end. The right hearing aid is beneficial to your life in many ways.

 

Hearing aid care

If your loved one is getting older and losing their hearing, then you might want to take them to a team of hearing consultants to find out if they can get hearing aids to help them out. It’s frustrating for the elderly to not be able to hear. They know everyone is yelling at them but without listening devices prescribed by hearing consultants, there’s really nothing that they can do. However, as their caregiver, there might be a few things that you will have to over come. Here are some ideas of how to do that.

Money
This is often the number one problem that people have with getting a hearing aid. These listening devices can cost anywhere from $1,800 to $6,800 plus, depending on the type that you get. They are not usually covered by state insurance like Medicare. However, more audiologists are willing to come up with a payment plan so that your loved one can still get the care that they need. There are other options to, such as a ‘go fund me’ account or soliciting help from family members. Often times, families are able to pull together and help out an elderly relative even if they don’t live in the same place.

Stigma
Unfortunately, loss of hearing comes with a stigma for the older generation. Often times they see it as a sign of weakness. There was a time that being hard of hearing or having complete loss of hearing was seen as a lack of intelligence; as if someone that couldn’t hear couldn’t possibly learn anything. Now we know that that is far from true but it’s difficult to get these ideas out of the older generation’s head sometimes. Since you are apart of the younger generation in their eyes, you may be able to convince them that this is no longer the case. Show them examples of people in history who accomplished great things but were hard of hearing.

Pride
It’s difficult for an elderly person to have to be taken care of by his or her children when it was the opposite way for so long. This is why involving a third party might be the best idea. They may not be able to be convinced by you but once they are shown how small hearing aids are now and how common the devices are, they may change their mind.

Misunderstanding
Not understanding how a hearing aid works or why they need it can also be a deterrent. This is especially true for dementia or Alzheimer’s patients. When they are lucid, you or a professional needs to explain all of the risks of hearing loss to them. Realizing the isolation and the increased risk of falling and other things that can happen when you can’t hear properly should help them to make the right decision when it really comes down to it.

Denial
This may very well be the number one reason that the elderly don’t want to get a hearing aid. They simply think they don’t need it. In one interview, an elderly lady was convinced that she just heard what she wanted to hear and blocked everything else out. If this is the same with your relative, you may be able to convince them by having them undergo tests where someone talks to them in their ear and gets further and further away until they can no longer hear them anymore. This should help them to realize that it’s not just that they are shutting out what they don’t think that they want to hear, they really can not control the amount that they hear.

The great thing about hearing consultants is that they can help you to get through to your loved ones. If you don’t think that they are listening to you, look for a good team of hearing consultants that will be willing to sit down with your loved ones and really explain the dangers of not being able to hear properly as well as the benefits of being able to. Once they hear this from an unbiased party, they may be more willing to consider it.

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