We have referred to her website before as a valuable source for people involved with caregiving of elderly people. Linda Abbit, a blogger and passionate advocate for elder care, writes on her website Tender Loving Eldercare.com about how to take good care of aging family members and caregiving to elderly in general.

In our earlier post in September we mentioned part 1 of her informative series on family caregiver communication. She recently wrote a second part about “Speaking Easily About Difficult Topics” and a third part focusing on “Dealing with Pessimistic Aging Parents”. This week she posted a fourth part on the subject of “Talking with Hearing Impaired Aging Parents”:

I recently spent eight days traveling with my cousins and one Golden Oldie aunt, age 90, who is hearing impaired and uses hearing aids. On our trip we visited another Golden Oldie aunt, age 95, who is completely deaf and whose hearing loss, unfortunately, cannot be helped by hearing aids. While this experience is fresh in my mind, It seems appropriate for me to share some valuable tips about communicating with seniors who have hearing loss.

Start With the Basics

This is probably obvious, but it could have a big impact on your Golden Oldie’s hearing ability: Be sure their hearing aid is turned on, fitted and adjusted properly and the batteries are charged. Many people who use hearing aids complain that background noises are amplified along with the sounds they are trying to hear, so no hearing aid is perfect. But insure that your aging parent has been to an audiologist, is following their recommendations and goes for re-checks if they are having any problems using the hearing devices successfully.

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