Hearing aids - anyone an expert??

[minko]

Apologies for putting this here in Gransnet but seemed as good a place as any!

It's about my mum who is 73. She has degenerative deafness and now has a hearing aid in each ear, but even with then in and on she doesn't seem to hear much. I've noticed she is now avoiding social situations - even when it is just family. She drifts off into another room as she doesn't know what anyone is talking about.

When we were at the cinema recently her hearing aids weren't fitted with the 'induction loop' thing for hearing the film so I wonder if she has the most basic NHS standard issue aids. Is there better out there? And where do you start getting one? I know my parents have a slightly naive attitude that the NHS knows best and wouldn't want to 'make a fuss' and try and upgrade but it really seems to be getting my mum down and affecting her quality of life.

Bump...

sometimes just going back to the hospital hearing unit and saying mum is still having trouble may help, apparently hearing aids take some getting used to and need adjustment until they work as efficiently as they can,if you get mum to go back I"d love to know how so I can get my mother there!!!!!!!! she has an aid in each ear and won"t wear them

Thanks, I'll have to get my dad to take her back. The trouble with my mum is that she has this 'I am old, it is to be expected' rather doomy approach to life these days. She won't think paying for private HAs (if it comes to it) would be worth the money.

good luck with mum hope a repeat visit works it was what they recommeded when I took my mum for her aids but she just says "I don"t like them" and I say lets go back then and she says " I don"t like them" see the problem?

Take her back, they need to be programmed correctly. If she wants to use induction loop it is usually just a question of having that function switched on, aids are very clever but they tend to just put basic stuff on to start with as too many programmes is confusing. My DS is 10 and has nhs aids there are loads of functions, it is just a question of finding out what she finds useful.

Hearing aids amplify all sounds, (background noise, someone scratching their arm, a foot tapping, etc) not just the speech sounds. Perhaps your Mum is shying away from the social situations as there is too much noise and can't follow the conversation.

My elders struggle to hear when there is background noise or many people talking at once even with hearing aids.
My MIL has private and my Mum NHS. Both seem pretty good to me (I tried wearing my Mum's and would say sound was definitely louder).