Denton County Living Well Magazine September/October 2020 | Page 37
Communication, Hearing
Loss and the Usage of
Masks In Today’s World
By ELIZABETH BRASSINE, AU.D.
The impact of hearing loss on communication
has become magnified with
the Coronavirus (Covid-19). Unfortunately,
many of the people who have fallen victim
to the virus have hearing loss, are unaccompanied
by family members, have multiple
chronic health conditions and are likely
without hearing assistance. We think of the
obvious effect of hearing loss with regard to
communication difficulties. However, your
hearing health contributes to your overall
well-being and quality of life. Statistically,
hearing loss is the third most prevalent
chronic condition in older Americans after
hypertension and arthritis. Aging also brings
cognitive processing deficits that interfere
with communication and can create distractions
that lead to memory loss, falls and other
accidents.
We are aware that a cornerstone of patient
safety and quality healthcare is effective communication,
which allows patients to participate
more fully in their care. For communication
to be effective, it must take place in a
manner appropriate to one’s age, understanding
and communication abilities. Furthermore,
medical information, when provided,
must be complete, accurate, timely, unambiguous,
and understood. When patients can
hear and understand the healthcare provider,
they are much more likely to be compliant
and follow recommendations and have their
medical needs optimally met.
The struggle to understand speech for persons
with hearing loss is now exacerbated by
face masks, which have become a necessity
to help minimize the spread of the virus. The
masks pose two problems for patients with
hearing loss: the hearing impaired person
cannot gain any cues from lip reading and the
voice of the person talking is attenuated and
distorted by the mask. In particular, masks
impact the “loudness” of the higher pitched
speech sounds, which are our consonants.
Consonants give us the meaning to what we’re
listening to. Some people have been able to obtain
the clear face masks. This certainly helps
reduce the issue of not being able to see the face
and lip reading but can still distort the speech.
In the midst of our current environment
of Covid-19 and the need for wearing masks,
here are some suggestions of how to best
communicate with the hearing impaired.
• Face the person and talk clearly (not
while walking away from the patient or
while looking in cabinets, refrigerators,
etc.).
• Speak at a reasonable speed, often
slowing down how you speak is more
beneficial than raising your voice.
• Do not hide your mouth (so much
speech information comes from nonverbal
cues and facial expressions) or
talk while eating or chewing gum.
• Stand in good lighting.
• Reduce background noises.
• Use facial expressions or gestures to
give useful cues.
• Repeat yourself, if necessary, using
different words.
• Include the hearing-impaired person
when talking. Talk with the person,
not about the person when you are
with others. This helps keep the person
with hearing loss from feeling alone
and excluded.
• Be patient; stay positive and relaxed.
• Ask how you can help!
Also important, here are some tips of what
the hearing impaired person can do to improve
their communication with hearing
aids:
• Let people know that you have
difficulty hearing.
• Ask people to face you and to speak
slowly and clearly. Ask them to speak
without shouting, which can just
distort the speech signal.
• Pay attention to what is being said and
to facial expressions or gestures.
• Let the person talking know if you do
not understand.
• Ask people to reword a sentence and
try again.
• Turn off any unnecessary, extraneous
noises (such as radio while in car, TV
at home, etc.).
• Wear your hearing aids consistently!
DENTON COUNTY • 35