Last week, the world celebrated World Hearing Day on march 3. The theme this year is Hearing Care for All. This global call to action encourages professionals and individuals around the world to take hearing health seriously. Many people assume hearing loss is just a natural and inevitable part of aging and there’s no need to treat it. But that’s not the case!
Hearing loss affects everyone, regardless of age, and treating hearing loss can change your life. Though World Hearing Day has passed, it is always a good time to address hearing loss, and encourage everyone to have a hearing test, invest in hearing aids, and get back to easy communication.
Challenging the Stigma
Hearing Care for All is all about breaking down the stigma of hearing loss. Many people think admitting they have a hard time hearing will make them seem old or incompetent. That’s simply not true. People of all ages have hearing loss, even children and teens. And age-related hearing loss often starts in your 40s or early 50s! Hearing loss isn’t a sign of age, it’s just a sign you need to take care of your hearing.
Treating your hearing loss will make it easy for you to follow conversations. You’ll have fun at social events and you won’t waste your energy straining to hear. Treating your hearing loss will make you seem younger, and you’ll be taking action to challenge the stigma of hearing loss.
For Policy Makers
By raising awareness, the World Health Organization encourages policy makers to recognize how many people of all ages are living with untreated hearing loss. It’s a call to raise awareness about hearing loss, and a reminder that hearing loss has a negative effect on life. Untreated hearing loss is a barrier between individuals and their loved ones, makes it hard to access quality care, and can lead to isolation and depression.
World Hearing Day calls on policy makers to encourage hearing tests and hearing treatment for everyone. It is also the perfect opportunity for policy makers to take a look at the costs of hearing health care, and to develop new strategies to make hearing care affordable for everyone.
For You and Your Family
- Hearing Screening: Hearing loss can impact children, teens, adults, and seniors, so everyone in your family should get a hearing screening. We recommend getting a hearing screening every few years, so you can monitor any change in your hearing health, and get treatment as soon as you need it.
- Hearing Test: Have you noticed changes in your hearing? Get a hearing test! Are you at risk of hearing loss because you’re over 60 or you work in a noisy job? Get a hearing test! Schedule annual hearing tests on March 3 to celebrate World Hearing Day and monitor your hearing health. When you find out about your hearing loss early, you’ll be able to treat your hearing loss before it has a major effect on your life.
- Hearing Protection: Noise induced hearing loss is completely preventable! World Hearing Day is a great opportunity to find out more about how noise is damaging your hearing. Together with your family, learn more about hearing loss, find out what sounds can cause hearing loss, and discover what kind of hearing protection you can wear to prevent hearing loss.
- Treating Hearing Loss: Do you have hearing loss? Maybe someone in your family is struggling to follow conversations and can’t keep up with what is being said. World Hearing Day is the right time to talk about hearing loss and explore your treatment options. You’ll be amazed at all the recent advancements in hearing technology. Modern hearing devices are sleek, powerful hearing aids that will help you hear. You can focus on what you want to hear, easily ignore background noise, and even connect to your phone to stream audio right to your ears.
Our Comprehensive Hearing Health Services
Are you on the fence about booking a hearing test? We hope that the Hearing Care for All campaign gives you a push in the right direction. Our team will be with you at every step of the way and together we’ll learn more about your hearing health to find the right treatment option for your hearing needs.