Liječnički vjesnik, Vol. 139 No. 9-10, 2017.
Review article
CONTEMPORARY REHABILITATION OF ADULTS WITH ACQUIRED HEARING LOSS
Luka Bonetti
Iva Ratkovski,
Boris Šimunjak
Abstract
Every fourth person aged over 60 years acquires hearing loss. Due to its interference with interpersonal communication, hearing loss undermines social life, emotional well-being, functional status and mental health. Modern intervention seeks to reduce the impact of hearing loss on the quality of life through a psycho-social approach. This implies upgrading the hearing aid fitting process with instructional activities, communication training and counseling carried out by an interdisciplinary team. The team’s task is to empower a new hearing aid user to accept hearing loss, to use the residual hearing capabilities for functional communication and to prevent social isolation. This paper describes the assumptions and components of a holistic, interdisciplinary process of intervention in the area of acquired hearing loss in the elderly. The paper presents the complex consequences of hearing loss and their highly individual nature; the way on which intervention outcomes depend on determining and satisfying various specific individual needs resulting from hearing loss; the structure and evaluation process of psychosocial intervention for elderly with hearing loss; contribution of the holistic model of intervention to the prevention and/or mitigation of the overall impact of hearing loss on quality of life.
Keywords
Persons with hearing impairments – psychology, rehabilitation; Aging – physiology, psychology; Hearing aids – utilization; Quality of life; Communication; Speech perception; Self-assessment; Counseling; Patient education as topic; Patient satisfaction
Hrčak ID:
193282
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2017.
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