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Center for Hearing Loss Help

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Hospital Communication Kits—Boon for Hard of Hearing Patients

I am going to the hospital shortly and I am worried that I won’t be able to hear, or will misunderstand, the instructions and questions of the doctors and nurses since I have quite a bad hearing loss. What can I do to make my stay in the hospital more communication friendly?

The secret is to be prepared ahead of time for your stay in the hospital. This article explains the steps you should take to do this. It explains what should be in your hospital kit and gives two sources for good low-cost kits you can take to the hospital with you to help you effectively communicate with those you come in contact with in the hospital.

Visor Cards—Bridging the Communications Gap When Stopped by the Police

I am hard of hearing. If I am stopped by the police at night, what is the best way for me to let the police know that I can’t hear their orders. I don’t want to be manhandled or shot for deliberately disobeying orders I cannot hear.

If you are stopped by the police at night, this free visor card will let the police know at the outset that you can’t hear them before anything bad happens to you.

Speechreading (Lip-Reading)

I am looking for information on lip-reading—it’s accuracy and associated difficulties. I understand that lip-reading really is very hard and not particularly accurate. Is this true?

Speechreading is an invaluable skill for hard of hearing people to have. This article explains what speechreading is and what it can and cannot do.

Captioned Entertainment—Here’s the Scoop!

I’ve often heard that there are movie theatres with captioning but have never heard of one near me. Is there some central place that lists which theatres have such help available? How do you learn of captioned movies shown in your city? Are they listed as such in your local newspaper movie line-up or where?

When it comes to finding captioned movies and plays, many hard of hearing people don’t know where to turn. The good news is that there are several organizations dedicated to helping us by listing which movies and live theatre events are captioned. This article shows you where to go to find this information.

Driving Safely with Hearing Loss

“How do you drive if you can’t hear?” is a question I’ve been asked a number of times. And I normally answer, “I use my eyes when I drive. What do you use?” “Judy”, a hard of hearing lady, responding to this same question, quipped, “I use my hands. My ears aren’t able to reach the steering wheel.”

This article explains a number of practical coping strategies for driving safely even though you can’t hear honking horns and sirens when you drive.

Fire Safety for People with Hearing Loss

“In the USA in 2006, there were 412,500 home fires that killed 2,580 people and injured another 12,925 people. That’s scary! On the average, these same fires killed one person with hearing loss every 15 hours, and injured a person with hearing loss every 3 hours. That’s really scary if you are one of the 70 million Americans with hearing loss!”

You don’t have to become one of those statistics. Although having a hearing loss puts you at a decided disadvantage when using standard alerting devices to warn you of fires, you can put the odds in your favor if you follow the four basic steps in this article. This article explains a number of practical coping strategies for both preventing fires from happening in your home and wonderful new alerting systems to quickly get your attention—even if you have a hearing loss—if a fire should happen to break out.

Practical Coping Strategies for Hearing Loss

Could you give me some practical tips for dealing with hearing loss in the home and in restaurants? It hadn’t occurred to me that re-arranging furniture in my home might help me hear better. Can you tell me more? Also about where to sit in places like restaurants.

This article explains practical (and free) coping strategies to employ in your home and when dining at restaurants so you can hear better.

New to Hearing Loss? Here’s the Help You Need

“Help! I’m losing my hearing. What do I do? Who do I see? Where do I go for help?” If you are anxiously groping for the answers to these and other questions regarding your hearing loss or the hearing loss of a close family member, take heart.

This article gives numerous on-line (and other) sources of information and help. It also contains an annotated list of a number of good books on various aspects of hearing loss and other ear problems.

The Single Most Effective Hearing Loss Coping Strategy

If you only had one coping strategy you could employ, and it mustn’t cost a cent, what would your single most effective hearing loss coping strategy be?

This article explains the one most important thing you can do to help yourself hear better in any situation.

Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease (AIED)

There seems to be a lot of talk about autoimmune inner ear disease now. What exactly is this? How do I know if this caused my hearing loss? What can I do about it?

This article includes what AIED is; its characteristics and risk factors; and how doctors diagnose and treat it.