Dear LPG, 

The internet informs that In the UK, more than 40% of people over 50 years old have hearing loss, rising to more than 70% of people over the age of 70.

I have a friend who, like me, has recently become a septuagenarian, but she is now losing her hearing.  During the pandemic we video called each other a lot and we worked out how to understand each other with the help of subtitled computer captions, but now that we are able to meet up it is not always quite so simple.  

My friend tells me that once it gets harder to understand what you are hearing, there are the practical things that make life difficult.  Not being able to hear an approaching car or a tap which you forgot to turn off are just two examples of the things that you have to be extra worried about, but there is also the fact that understanding the people around you becomes a serious challenge too.  

It is often gradual and takes time for even the person affected to notice what is going on.  She also says that when your sense of hearing is affected there is no visibly obvious way that the people around you will instantly know unless you tell them.

My friend pointed out one of the most obvious things about becoming a person who cannot hear properly.  It is a process that I have watched her experience.  I have to say that I always thought of the cost of glasses as expensive but the average cost of those have nothing on the cost of hearing aids. 

Now that we are able to meet up again there are a few things I have learned which make it easier for us to communicate and I was surprised to find most of them listed online.  So for any readers who are working out how best to make themselves heard in these circumstances I am sharing a little online information that I hope might help…

NH, Downham.

NH, shares what she found… 

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…and also found some online information about what it is like for the person trying to understand you…

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