Integrate Hearing Audiologist Olivia Austin giving a brief overview on what it is like experiencing hearing loss and some of the common issues it can cause.

Hearing is massive and it is something that has been linked to things like Dementia, increased hospitalization and also depression as well. Particularly in the ageing population if you imagine being isolated already maybe down to other ailments which mean that you are housebound for example and you watch the television a lot of the time and you interact with people mainly by the telephone, you might get the odd visitor once a week or something like that – if you can’t hear them when you’re socialising, it’s really, really isolating. Coupled with the fact that you might have sight problems as well things like macular degeneration, you can end up in your own little world really. So, it is something that people describe – they say things like that they feel stupid when they are talking to people because having to ask somebody to repeat when you get to the second or the third time instead of thinking that you’ve not heard them, they just think you are not understanding what they are saying. Yeah, I think it is really quite isolating.