Hearing care professionals have a unique opportunity to view the aging process. They also can play a crucial role in empowering seniors with a positive attitude and blazing a trail that can allow seniors to age gracefully.

The attitudes of people relative to their own aging vary dramatically. Some people are just plain good at aging. In a recent seminar, Donald Schum of Oticon described some seniors as “seasoned young people.” In general, he says these people are more willing to aggressively address physical problems that they can change, and shrug off those problems they can’t. People who age well tend to react to lifestyle changes in more positive ways, using a problem-solution strategy rather than thinking of themselves as a “victim of aging.” Whether it’s through diet, exercise, or pharmaceuticals, these people may not necessarily want to embrace a new treatment or lifestyle change, but once they recognize the logic or necessity behind that treatment, they’re off and running toward a better and healthier future.

Other seniors can slip into “survival mode.” They view themselves as losing some of the most rudimentary capabilities—things that people often take for granted—and they literally start holding onto whatever they have left. Any new physical problem is met with the corresponding dread for that problem’s treatment. Some physical problems in seniors lead to a cascade of other debilitating effects. Most of us, for example, have known someone who has broken their hip, and that injury/illness then spirals into a raft of ailments—sometimes even leading to death. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to live every day with poor vision, poor hearing, memory loss, chronic pain, a severe lack of mobility, or any combination of the above. Any one of these represents a serious impediment to daily living that can threaten a person’s independence and enjoyment of life.

What’s worse is that these problems are too often chalked up to getting old. Health care professionals need to dissuade people from accepting this premise on face value. Yes, aging generally comes with some loss of abilities, but the image of what it is to be old has changed so dramatically over the past 30 years. For example, when we baby boomers were children, people in their 70s were often considered to be “old” and living a sedentary lifestyle; people in their 70s today are generally expected to enjoy many more years of active, healthy life.

It’s no coincidence that the best patients of health care professionals, in general, are those who are fighters. The role that amplification plays in maintaining positive attitudes toward general health cannot be overestimated. When people lose their hearing, they may view that hearing loss as an sign of their own physical decline, independence, and even a kind of creeping dissipation of self-significance or self-relevance. Some older people feel as if they are gradually fading out of the lives of others. Communication is a key element—if not the central element— in keeping seniors in touch and involved with the outside world. Communication and recognition leads to self-empowerment and self-advocacy.

In this context, showing seniors that there is a reason for addressing their hearing loss; demonstrating that hearing care professionals have a logical set of solutions for dealing with their disability; then giving patients the confidence to change their lives by positively addressing their problems can represent an epiphany in the way they’re approaching the aging process. It’s even possible that this can lead to a form of empowerment that goes beyond simply hearing better.

Karl Strom
Editor-In-Chief