Alzheimer's and Hearing Aids

Looking4Insight

Registered User
Jan 7, 2016
4
0
Hi all,

I'm looking for your insights on three points:

1.) Do elderly living with Alzheimer's often forget to put on their hearing aids, particularly in the morning?

2.) Does your loved one with ALZ use a hearing aid? One with Bluetooth? Would you consider purchasing a Bluetooth-enabled hearing aid if it made caregiving easier (just assume it does, don't worry about how)?

3.) Would an audio reminder message played through an earpiece/hearing aid be more convenient than one played from a fixed speaker?

Thank you for sharing your opinions and experiences.
 

canary

Registered User
Feb 25, 2014
25,018
0
South coast
Mum wears a hearing aid and we have had all sorts of problems with them. Yes, she would forget to put them in, but also she could not remember how to fit them in her ear and how to switch them on, so someone had to do it for her. She would also regularly take them out during the day and put them in funny places (and say that someone had stolen them) so I would have to go on a hearing aid hunt. Sometimes it would take a couple of days before they got found. Then the battery would run out and she didnt understand what the noise to alert her of this meant so she would take them out ........

She is now mid - late stage and does not wear her hearing aids at all.
 

Blimey

Registered User
Jun 6, 2012
20
0
Hi

1) yes and forgets how to replace batteries, or that the tune means batteries need changing.
2) not bluetooth, but if there was a way to send messages, could be good.
3) not sure how would know if message received, but then that could be the case with a fixed speaker as well!
 

1mindy

Registered User
Jul 21, 2015
538
0
Shropshire
Oh should wear hearing aids but we gave up ages ago. He kept saying they didn't work anyway. We knew they did as we didn't have to repeat ourselves or be ignored. He just for of how to put them in.
 

Hair Twiddler

Registered User
Aug 14, 2012
891
0
Middle England
Mum is 88 years old and has relied on a hearing aid for over 40 years. Putting it in is a habitual activity for her and she never "forgets".
Using it is a slightly different matter, batteries are a problem now because of their "fiddliness" - Im guessing for most elderly folk this is a problem too.
We have a loop system in mums sitting room, it makes watching TV possible for her. Her hearing aid is set to either loop or non loop by a button on the top. On good days mum can manage these two settings very well, on bad days the button is forgotten and the aid is no help to mum in fact it is a source of huge annoyance - correction it's not the aid causing the issue it's me and oh boy do I get a tongue lashing for messing the TV up/not caring for her/not taking her to the hospital right now.
Bluetooth applications could work.
 

joggyb

Registered User
Dec 1, 2014
119
0
Hi all,

I'm looking for your insights on three points:

1.) Do elderly living with Alzheimer's often forget to put on their hearing aids, particularly in the morning?

2.) Does your loved one with ALZ use a hearing aid? One with Bluetooth? Would you consider purchasing a Bluetooth-enabled hearing aid if it made caregiving easier (just assume it does, don't worry about how)?

3.) Would an audio reminder message played through an earpiece/hearing aid be more convenient than one played from a fixed speaker?

Thank you for sharing your opinions and experiences.

Our experience with my dad is almost identical to canary's with her mum. My dad has worn aids for 40 years, but now doesn't wear them at all. For a short while after diagnosis, he continued to wear them, but then started taking them out, losing them, and also taking them apart! It wasn't long before he wouldn't accept wearing them at all, and he's now been without them for many months - he just doesn't know what they are, or what they're for. To him, they're just an irritation in his ears.
 

Onlyme

Registered User
Apr 5, 2010
4,992
0
UK
Mum had them fitted before diagnosis but she was obviously getting confused.

She used to take out her hearing aids, not know when the battery needed changing, put them back in the box with them still on, flat battery and then kept wrapping them in tissue. They were more pain than benefit so we gave up.
 

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