Another change that takes place that is common among those aged sixty and older is hearing loss.

High frequency sounds are difficult for the average aged person to hear, especially for men. This can cause people to misunderstand what is said – particularly when spoken by people with high-pitched voices such as women, giving an inkling of truth to the joke that husbands (over sixty!) don’t really listen to their wives and oftentimes have selective hearing!

It’s rather funny sometimes to overhear conversations between an aged man and woman when one can’t hear properly and the other won’t wear or isn’t wearing their hearing aid. All sorts of misunderstandings occur and the conversation is quite repetitious as you can imagine. Occasionally one person ends up being offended by what they think they have heard which can turn them off communicating with that person ever again.

For my own part I had told a friend of mine who is American and has quite bad hearing in the right ear, I was going to do a painting of the American flag and eagle. He was quite offended and answered, “what’s that about America being evil?”

Furthermore some folk get downright paranoid if they are in a room full of people mostly talking at the same time and they hear only whispers or pick up the odd word out of context. A lot of hearing impaired people don’t bother going out for this reason.

Many of the elderly in my care have a lot of difficulty with hearing aids. They find it hard to “tune” them in and change the minute battery. Often they just give up trying to install them.

Those who are both sight and hearing impaired find it particularly difficult to fit left and right hearing aids into the correct ear as well as finding it near on impossible to change batteries frequently.

All in all hearing impairment can be very frustrating and I think, a large burden on some marriages as well.

Occasionally you may find yourself speaking much louder than normal if one of your clients is hearing impaired, which is nearly all people from over the age of eighty.

If you are doing respite and are with that person most of the day you could find your voice box suffering. Little sips of water taken every now and then can help with the strain or perhaps the two of you could watch a DVD together – that gives you at least an hour’s break from speaking! Of course your ears will have to bear the burden when you have to turn the sound up to two million decibels!

Generally, if you are speaking to someone who is hard of hearing, do stand in front of them face to face and let them see your lips moving. Also if they have a “bad” ear, situate yourself next to their “good” ear when it’s necessary.

Don’t talk too fast (nor too slow, they are not mentally slow) and enunciate clearly.

If your client is blind or in some other way visually impaired as well as deaf, still follow all the above tips.

Sometimes you need to give a helping hand with their hearing aid because elderly fingers often find small objects such as clips, knobs, buttons and just tiny things in general hard to grasp or manipulate and more often than not hearing aids can be misplaced leading to further frustration with endless hours spent on the floor searching for dropped batteries as well.

From the book "Strong Hands, Gentle Heart" by Toni Cary
Available through Aspire publishing