how do you cope with hard of hearing family?

[ElasticAnimal]

DH is hard of hearing, tends to interrupt conversations, since he doesnt know people are talking
its exasperating

how can we overcome this?

Surely he can look around to see if lips are moving?

Assuming he's already got all necessary hearing aids etc, then yes, what pp said. He needs to look around and check if people are talking first.

dare i mention his reduced vision also, pretty frustrating.

Does he have hearing aids? I have full hearing in one ear and very very little hearing in the other and don't use hearing aids and I don't interrupt conversations. Is his heating loss new? He might still be adapting but you do tend to learn to develop coping techniques in terms of using other clues around you.

so you reckon it is down to him to check first?

he rarely wears the hearing aids, although was yesterday when he was annoyed!

Ahh. There we have it. You do have to wear them all the time to get used to them don't you, before they become really effective?
If he wants to contribute socially he really does need to do everything he can to be socially competent! If a time comes when hearing aids no longer help him hear, and his vision can't be improved either, that is obviously different.

i think the problem with his hearing aids is that they just make EVERY thing louder, which doesnt necessarily help
we need to look into digital i think

He needs to wear them all the time otherwise he won’t get used to them. Had a similar problem with my dad, once we convinced him to wear his hearing aids all the time he got used to them and he stopped interrupting the conversation flow. This is down to your DH to solve and he has the solution 🙂

I told my dad that research showed that if he didn't get hearing aids, it would hasten cognitive decline.

I have two experiences of this. One is a relative with profound hearing loss. She has to wear aids and does . She cannot hear at all really without them. But it is very challenging for her. The aids are uncomfortable, run out of batteries and just skim the edges of the loss she has. It's not ideal situation. She lives along and often doesn't wear the aids at home. She is not good at checking her phone (dependant on texts) and sometimes goes out of contact much to the worry of her family. She also doesn't hear certain sounds like the fire alarm or door bell. But everyone is patient with her as she tries.

My other relative, a male one, will not a)accept his hearing loss b) acknowledge there is any issue c) blames everyone else for speaking to low d) says the audiologist is just wanting to make money. He will not wear aids under any circumstances. He has a very expensive pair but has not worn them no to used to them and said he was chucking themout. This has caused an enormous upset with his partner and patience is low (and the tv is loud).

So I know what you are going through. Sadly I'm not sure he will ever accept it. The only thing that could helped pursue him to buy the aids was finding an audiologist he liked. Sadly this hasn't made him actually wear them. I also think the aids are quite horrible. It's not like wearing specs , it doesn't normalise hearing . So I think that may be part of the problem.

My DH has noise induced deafness. Hearing aids have only been effective for the last 20 or so years. When he got them he found everything was very loud, even birdsong which he hadn't heard for years. He missed so much before, childrens' voices, sounds in nature, alarms, car engines etc, but it wasn't his fault at that time.

To get the best out of the aids you must wear them all the time, just like false teeth and contact lenses. You don't get used to them unless you do that. It is very rude for everyone else to have to shout because you are too lazy (yes that is what it is) to wear them. I would/do refuse to engage with the person refusing to wear hearing aids. Would you feel safe if someone drove a car without them wearing glasses if needed?

Not wearing your hearing aids isn't laziness. Yes, we should wear them. Yes, it's the right thing to do.

But they're unpleasant. They're uncomfortable, mine give a constant hissing in my good ear (like extra tinnitus on top of my actual tinnitus) and they are really of limited help in improving hearing for a lot of people. I take mine out with such pleasure at night. It's like taking off a tight bra times a million.

My husband has worn hearing aids in both ears for 15 years plus.

Yes, I get so bloody frustrated at times, even though he wears them it can still be difficult, especially in a group setting, if we go out for dinner he sits with his back to a wall if possible due to background noise, he can turn them to cancel out background noise, but there not very effective.

He often shouts, even though he’s wearing them too, I cover my ears in frustration & then he gets cross!

Whe have the subtitles on the TV permanently!

People he dosent know makes it more difficult too, ie: in a restaurant the waiter will ask for his order, but he dosent hear them properly, then he’ll ask me what they said.
I don’t know what the answer is, but exasperated I definitely get!

Sorry OP that doesn't help you. How much does he manage to hear of conversations?

Unfortunately the alternative to the interrupting might be that he stops joining in and withdraws socially.

My husband wears fancy hearing aids which cost a fortune yet I still have to repeat 70% of what I say to him cos he never adjusts them (on an app). Drives me insane.

How’s he supposed to monitor 6 peoples lips at the same time in a group setting?

This is correct. If the auditory nerve is not stimulated sufficiently this happens, I have first hand experience of that.

It's also important to wear hearing aids as it's protective against getting dementia

Sorry - cross post

I also have the subtitles on the TV permanently. Even with hearing aids in, I don't always catch everything. I do my best though.

They will already be digital unless he got them 20 years ago.

Monitoring people’s lips is easier said than done!
He needs to wear his hearing aids to get used to them or get them adjusted. Hearing aids don’t make your hearing perfect so a little patience and compassion would be nice.

Bloody nightmare. My mother has deteriorating hearing yet refuses to address it or have any aids that could assist. Not sure if its just stubbornness or insecurity but either way most disagreements we have are due to her lack of ability to hear clearly and her expecting me to repeat myself several times.

My dad is hard of hearing. Honestly, I get so frustrated. Refuses aids so I'm shouting. Ok at home but out of the house.... not so great

NHS hearing aids are digital. Settings can be added to reduce background noise etc. Private hearing aids aren't necessarily better.