Miss-Delectable
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High price of waiting for vital aids - Opinion - News - Belfast Telegraph
The Royal National Institute for Deaf People has announced that the waiting list for NHS digital hearing aids is about two million and that your postcode often determines how quickly you get fitted.
They say 9% of hard of hearing people have to wait more than one year for their aid, for an unfortunate 1% this wait stretches to two years.
The alternative is to pay up to £1,000 at a private clinic.
The terms 'hard of hearing', or 'hearing impaired', cover a range of hearing loss and modern aids with their hundreds of microscopic electronic components have to achieve the difficult task of increasing the loudness of the spoken word while mitigating background noises in the same manner as the human ear.
Those who have switched to digital from the old analogue sets tell me how wonderful it is to hear birdsong and everyday household noises such as the hum from the refrigerator.
Several years ago, during a visit to Mary Hare Grammar School for deaf children in Berkshire, my wife and I were shown the soundproof room where pupils were tested for hearing loss. The headmaster told me the results demonstrated two important factors: one was that almost all of the pupils had some form of residual hearing, and secondly, they proved how important the ambience of the classroom was in enhancing sound quality.
Many of our young deaf from mainstream schools continue to wear their aids even after they have become fluent in sign language and it seems many of them can enjoy the sensation of sound even though the reception they get may not be clear enough for them to understand language and the spoken word.
Further research by the RNID shows that exposure to loud noises is a major cause of hearing loss.
Hearing loss is insidious and the delicate mechanism of the ear will eventually fail if subjected to a constant battering of excessive noise.
I once talked with a leading ENT consultant who told me he even wore earmuffs when mowing the grass - so ultra sensitive he was of the danger to his hearing from sounds others might think innocuous.
Gradual hearing loss is associated with the growing embarrassment that you are missing out on small items of conversation and figures from the RNID reckon this afflicts at least 100,000 of the Northern Ireland population. Instead of being part of the much smaller sign language or lip-reading community people try to brush it off for as long as possible and only resort to hearing aids when they can't no longer cope with the strain.
I have a family friend who was in such a position. He was constantly asking his wife to repeat what people were saying.
After several years he went to a private clinic and was fitted with the latest micro-sized aids. He is much more happy and relaxed now in company and feels the £2,000 investment has been worthwhile.
The Royal National Institute for Deaf People has announced that the waiting list for NHS digital hearing aids is about two million and that your postcode often determines how quickly you get fitted.
They say 9% of hard of hearing people have to wait more than one year for their aid, for an unfortunate 1% this wait stretches to two years.
The alternative is to pay up to £1,000 at a private clinic.
The terms 'hard of hearing', or 'hearing impaired', cover a range of hearing loss and modern aids with their hundreds of microscopic electronic components have to achieve the difficult task of increasing the loudness of the spoken word while mitigating background noises in the same manner as the human ear.
Those who have switched to digital from the old analogue sets tell me how wonderful it is to hear birdsong and everyday household noises such as the hum from the refrigerator.
Several years ago, during a visit to Mary Hare Grammar School for deaf children in Berkshire, my wife and I were shown the soundproof room where pupils were tested for hearing loss. The headmaster told me the results demonstrated two important factors: one was that almost all of the pupils had some form of residual hearing, and secondly, they proved how important the ambience of the classroom was in enhancing sound quality.
Many of our young deaf from mainstream schools continue to wear their aids even after they have become fluent in sign language and it seems many of them can enjoy the sensation of sound even though the reception they get may not be clear enough for them to understand language and the spoken word.
Further research by the RNID shows that exposure to loud noises is a major cause of hearing loss.
Hearing loss is insidious and the delicate mechanism of the ear will eventually fail if subjected to a constant battering of excessive noise.
I once talked with a leading ENT consultant who told me he even wore earmuffs when mowing the grass - so ultra sensitive he was of the danger to his hearing from sounds others might think innocuous.
Gradual hearing loss is associated with the growing embarrassment that you are missing out on small items of conversation and figures from the RNID reckon this afflicts at least 100,000 of the Northern Ireland population. Instead of being part of the much smaller sign language or lip-reading community people try to brush it off for as long as possible and only resort to hearing aids when they can't no longer cope with the strain.
I have a family friend who was in such a position. He was constantly asking his wife to repeat what people were saying.
After several years he went to a private clinic and was fitted with the latest micro-sized aids. He is much more happy and relaxed now in company and feels the £2,000 investment has been worthwhile.