Comfort Keeper Home Health Agency in San Angelo, TX and the Surrounding Area
Home Health Agency Caregivers in San Angelo, TX Help Seniors Who Have Hearing Loss
Hearing loss is a problem that millions of senior’s face. Sometimes hearing loss is the result of an accident or injury. But it can also be just an unfortunate part of aging. More than half of all seniors over 75 suffer from diminished hearing and hearing loss. Hearing loss can leave seniors isolated, depressed, and feeling disconnected from the world. But a caregiver from a home health agency can help.
Any home care agency professional will tell you that hearing loss brought on by age is an invisible disability. As such, it is often disregarded as unimportant and many people, including the seniors affected by it, underestimate its potential impact on overall health and quality of life.
Home health agency caregivers know that one of the main contributing factors to why hearing loss is often ignored is the fact that it happens slowly over time most often. A person may start losing their hearing as early as 40-years-old, but the progression may be very gradual. Sooner than later, they may find themselves not being able to hear at all.
How A Home Care Agency Caregiver Helps Seniors with Hearing Loss
Besides impacting the way, we navigate our social landscape, hearing loss may leave us unable to do the things we love. The most obvious of these is music, but seniors with hearing loss will also not be able to watch TV, go to the movies or the theater and even go shopping in some cases. A caregiver at home can go with seniors to shop or run errands to make it easier for them. And a caregiver can seniors with hearing loss the confidence they need to be more social and see friends and family members more often.
In a more dangerous sense, hearing loss can also lead to misdiagnosis. For example, home care services professional says that an older individual with age-related hearing loss may start being thought of as forgetful and confused and therefore diagnosed with dementia. A caregiver can track your senior loved one’s symptoms of hearing loss to give you and their doctor a better picture of the extent of their hearing loss.
There are a number of ways to asses if your loved one is experiencing hearing loss. Do they ask you to repeat words often? Are they increasingly less able to communicate over the phone? Have they suddenly started speaking much more loudly than is normal for them? Do they blast the TV or radio to uncomfortable volumes?
Home care agency professionals know that all of these are pretty surefire indicators of hearing loss, but they often go overlooked.
In order to best advocate for your loved one and get them the medical and non-medical assistance they need, you must first be able to communicate accurately with them. There are a few tricks to doing so. You should always get your loved one's attention and have them face you directly when talking. If they have poor vision, make sure they are wearing glasses or contacts. Do not yell but do speak more slowly. Furthermore, be ready to repeat things as many times as possible to ensure your loved one understands.
If you are concerned that your senior loved one in San Angelo, TX may be suffering from hearing loss or if you want to know more about how a home health agency caregiver can help seniors who have hearing loss call Comfort Keepers of San Angelo, TX today. One of our care specialists will be happy to talk with you about how a caregiver can help your senior loved one.
