World Hearing Day Starts Week of Events at Connect Hearing
The 3rd of March is the WHO designated World Hearing Day, it is a day of awareness of hearing loss around the world
World Hearing Day is an annual advocacy event, celebrated every year by the World Health Organization (WHO). The theme for this year’s World Hearing Day, “Action for hearing loss—Make a sound investment,” is a reminder of the impact that hearing loss can have on the individual and on society as a whole, says the organization. While that impact can be on general health and well being, there can also be a dramatic impact on the economic outlook of someone with hearing loss and indeed society.
“World Hearing Day is an important occasion to remember the fact that hearing health is about more than just how well a person can hear,” said Ida Institute Managing Director Lise Lotte Bundesen in a press statement. “Hearing loss can affect a person’s physical and mental health, the ability to earn and provide for themselves, as well as their social involvement. Our campaign is a call for people to take action on their hearing loss and motivate them to seek help".
Unaddressed hearing loss poses a high cost for the global economy and has a significant impact on the lives of those affected. Yet, interventions to address hearing loss are available and are cost-effective. WHO estimates that unaddressed hearing loss costs $750 billion annually. The European Association of Hearing Aid Professionals (AEA) state that untreated hearing loss costs the European Union €178 billion and the European group is using World Hearing Day to promote investment in professional hearing care as a sound investment.
The WHO World Hearing Day 2017 highlights actions which can be undertaken by decision-makers to address hearing loss. Activities being promoted by WHO include, prevention, screening for early identification, rehabilitation through hearing devices, captioning and sign language education as all these strategies can mitigate hearing loss and its consequences.
At Connect hearing we offer complementary in-depth hearing tests in order that people can identify if they have problems and make educated decisions on what to do. Our own understanding has changed and we now realise that the earlier the intervention when it comes to hearing loss the better the outlook. That intervention may well not be hearing aids, quite often we explain to Patients that while they have some hearing loss, hearing aids are not the answer but protecting their hearing is.
Hearing protection will slow the onset of hearing loss, early identification of problems allows you to focus on the fact that you need to protect your hearing.
