Importance of effective audiological counselling for successful hearing aid outcome

August 31, 2024

The level of hearing loss awareness and number of hearing aids user are increasing over the years. However, the number of unhappy hearing aid users are also on the rise. Why is this so?

Getting a hearing aid alone does not equal to successful hearing aid experience. So, it not uncommon to hear users give up on hearing aid shortly after they purchased them. What does it take to achieve successful hearing outcome, you ask?  Effective Audiological counselling. It is as important if not more important than buying the hearing aids itself.

Hearing aids rehabilitation process can be broadly divided into four phases and effective Audiological counselling by experienced Audiologist in each of these four phases plays a specific role and purpose as it targets at different needs and outcomes.

In our decades of hearing aids rehabilitation experience, we realised the importance of the role of an experienced Audiologist and his/her effective counselling skill. This starts from the very first clinical session when the patient comes to the clinic for hearing test.

Diagnosis Phase

Ability to explain hearing test results in an easy to understand manner and correlate to his/her everyday hearing difficulties. Many patients admit that they knew they have hearing loss; that their hearing is not as good as before in their first consultation session with u. However, many of them are reluctant to come forward seek diagnosis and hearing aid solutions.

The main role of counselling during this phase is to help the patient not only to understand their hearing loss and also the importance & urgency of improving their hearing that goes beyond better communication. This includes understanding the importance of early hearing intervention especially the correlation between degree of hearing loss and impact e.g. rate of cognitive decline. The poorer your hearing, the higher the risk of developing dementia.

Hearing loss is not just a hearing health problem, it is a mental health problem. Prolonged period of untreated hearing loss impacts the benefits one can derive from hearing aid amplification as well. Untreated hearing loss is also associated with social and psychological issues such as social withdrawal, behavioural changes and heightened anxiety, drop in confidence etc.

 

Case study

Mr Tan (not his real name) is in his 60s came for a one to one consultation with our Audiologist to seek a second view on suitable hearing aid evaluation for himself.

He shared his previous experience where he had obtained a hearing aid from another private hearing aid centre, prior to consulting us. “The reason why I came to consult you and bought another pair of hearing aids from you is because the consultation session with you, compared to my last experience (in another centre) is completely different.  You helped me to understand, you gave me time to understand my hearing and my difficulties. You also helped me to associate my degree of hearing impairment with everyday listening challenges and what are the technologies today that can help me overcome them. Often, I know the hearing aid is not able to resolve 100% of my difficulties but I now know how much I can improve and what I should do.

The previous experience did not do all these for me. I also now understand why you do certain things for me like progressive adjustment sessions and customization works.  You boosted my trust and confidence; I know you can help me hear better. I now feel relieved and supported knowing you can help me to learn and adjust in my time with your support.

I’m going to share my good experience at your clinic with my friends and let them know properly fitted hearing aids can help them.”

Please stay tuned to the next article to learn more about the rest of the phases for successful hearing aid rehabilitation outcome.