Benefits of Addressing Hearing Loss with an Action Plan

An action plan is proposed strategy or course of action and they are helpful in every aspect of your life.  Action Plans are useful, because they give you a framework for thinking about how you’ll complete a project efficiently. It’s ultimately in the preparation and planning. A well thought out plan prepares you for what to expect and can help you to complete tasks in a calm and sensible order, ensuring that you don’t miss any key steps. You can have an action plan for every aspect of your life if you feel it helps and this includes your hearing health.

Investing in your Health

It’s an amazing investment to focus on your health. After all our body is the vessel which we travel in through life. As we age, we must take a little extra care to ensure that we age with grace. This includes monitoring our hearing health. Hearing loss affects 48 million people in just the US and can happen to anyone at any age. However, your risk for hearing loss increases significantly once you hit the age of 60. One in three people over the age have hearing loss and this jumps to one in two for those 75 and older. It’s reasonable to suspect that you may develop a hearing loss but if you plan ahead, you will know what to do and how to get the support and treatment you need.

Creating an Action Plan Around Hearing Loss

Hearing loss often develops so gradually that many people don’t even know they have a problem. The first step in addressing a hearing loss is testing for it. Even if you aren’t actively feeling like you are struggling with hearing it may not mean you don’t have a problem. Our brains are incredibly good at rationalizing a hearing loss. It’s a good idea to start testing every 3 years as early as 50 so you can be in front of a possible hearing loss before it can progress. Unaddressed it can snowball into rifts in personal and professional relationships, chronic depression, social isolation, cognitive decline, dementia and a greater risk of falls and accidents leading to hospitalizations! Quickly it becomes clear that these subtle communication issues can affect the quality of your life in a sweeping way.

An Action Plan on A Systematic Level

Hearing loss is a growing issue worldwide affecting a projected 466 million people and expected to double in the next 30 years! Hearing loss is the third most common cause of disability and the number of people with hearing loss will substantially increase in parallel with the aging population. The fight begins with you on an individual level, however, institutions across the world are realizing that changes have to come on a global and institutional level. A recent study has found that changes around hearing loss on a global level could correspond to a return of nearly US$15 for every US$1 invested.

In an article published in in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, an action plan with 3 specific actions are suggested.

Creating a Coordinated Treatment Strategy: While other wide-reaching health conditions such as cancer and mental illness have coordinated strategies for treatment, across the world hearing health services are fragmented. A national strategy would include a plan with consumers, families, clinicians, payers, governments, and civil society to make it easier for people to get the hearing health services they need.

Creating a Better Network: Health systems are not currently full ready to support and offer the care hearing impaired people need. This can include regular checkups, treatments, and subsidized access to these services, while high prices of hearing treatment has historically isolated lower income people across the world. Ideally, health systems should be better adapted to meet the needs of people with hearing loss.

Building Awareness: Hearing loss is vastly underestimated in it effects and under treated. Part of changing this narrative relies on public outreach and understanding of the dangers of avoiding treatment and the many benefits to quality of life for those who do treat hearing loss.

Addressing hearing loss starts with you! Schedule an hearing exam with us today