Call for millions of Australians to take control of their hearing – and transform their lives
One in six Australians couldn’t experience the full impact of the popping corks and fireworks to see in the New Year.
Worse—New Year’s celebrations could have actually become stressful for them simply because it’s too hard to join in a conversation in a noisy, crowded environment. That can turn an excited, happy New Year gathering into an exhausting ordeal.
“I want the more than three million Australians whose hearing is deteriorating to resolve to take control of their hearing loss this New Year, says Dr Elaine Saunders, a leading audiologist, and co-inventor of Australia’s only home-grown hearing aid.
More than three million Australians are holding back from doing something – for reasons of stigma or cost – when they could easily and discretely get their lives back.
“Hearing loss affects your communication ability. It affects your work life. It affects your family life. It affects your relationships. It affects your mental health. It can lead to feelings of lack of safety and security,” says Elaine, a pioneer of technology for the hearing impaired and managing director of Blamey & Saunders Hearing.
But it can be so easily fixed, she says. Modern hearing aids can be inexpensive, almost invisible, and easily available via an audiologist or online.
“The good news is that if you take action early, and buy good quality hearing aids, they work pretty well, and the results can be very effective.”
The bad news, says Elaine, is that if the hearing nerves and the brain do not receive adequate input, the system starts to forget what to do. And the longer you leave it, the harder it is to regain good use of hearing.
“Keep your hearing by using it. It’s easier that fighting to get it back.”
The first step to regaining control of your hearing is either:
- see an audiologist and have your hearing tested—especially if you are in your 50s or older, when hearing naturally starts to go downhill; or
- visit the Blamey & Saunders Hearing website at www.blameysaunders.com.au and find out whether hearing aids can assist you. You can also look at IHearYou™, the Australian hearing aid, invented and designed as a spin-off from the bionic ear project.
These hearing aids are the only ones on the market to allow users to customise them to their own hearing—so you can really take control. They also incorporate the latest software for clarity of hearing and sound, without feedback. And all this comes at less than half the price of comparable hearing aid technology on the market.
About Elaine Saunders: ever since she volunteered at a school for the deaf more than 40 years ago, Elaine Saunders has had a passion for assisting the hearing impaired. She has worked as a hearing researcher and academic, most recently at RMIT University, and can provide as good an overview of the field as anyone in Australia. Despite her position as Managing Director of Blamey & Saunders Hearing, she is more than willing and able to talk from a general, non-commercial perspective.
For interviews: contact Elaine Saunders, elaine.saunders@blameysaunders.com.au
For further information http://www.blameysaunders.com.au/ or contact Niall Byrne on 0417 131 977, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au.