Coronavirus lockdown has been hard for everyone. People are worried about safety, stuck inside or going out to work in a pandemic – and cut off from family and friends.
Most people have the option of speaking to friends on the phone or with a video call at a moment’s notice. But for the 12 million people in the UK who are deaf or who have some kind of hearing loss, this option is much less viable.
Clara O’Shea, a trainee dentist with hearing loss, said the restrictions had left her feeling isolated.
She told the Standard: “Obviously we’re all in lockdown but it can probably be even lonelier for people with hearing loss. We can’t necessarily just pick up the phone and speak to our friends.
“When you struggle to hear, it makes you physically exhausted,” she added.
Conversations at a distance can be a challenge for people with hearing loss (AP)
Some of the social ties that help the deaf community combat loneliness in normal times have also been severed by the lockdown.
Liam O’Dell, a deaf activist and journalist, said: “Deaf social clubs, which are a big part of the community… have had to shut things down completely or move things online, which has had a really detrimental impact on people.”
But he added that another isolating factor for people with hearing loss was the lack of accessible information.
The BBC uses a British Sign Language interpreter overlaid on its broadcast of the daily coronavirus briefing and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has one, but the Downing Street briefings were criticised for doing the same. Activists had claimed it breached an equalities law, and launched legal proceedings last month.
The Government has said it is committed to getting health information to everyone in the UK, regardless of disability.
“I think for a lot of people they probably don’t want to talk about the dreaded… coronavirus but we also have to talk about it.
“When other people…. have the privilege of getting the latest information, deaf people are probably still falling behind because they don’t have that access.”
Roger Wicks, policy and campaigns director for charity Action on Hearing Loss, agreed.
People with hearing loss may be feeling especially isolated during coronavirus lockdown(Getty Images)
He said: “Briefings have to be accessible – it’s very important that there’s a British Sign Language interpreter.”
“We have to make health services accessible to all.”
And a recent development may worsen the situation for the UK’s deaf people.
The UK has been slower than many other countries in asking people to wear face masks and coverings. But the Government recently advised people to cover their faces when in busy places, including public transport, and masks are becoming more and more visible on the street.
The usefulness of face masks remains unclear – but for many deaf people and those with hearing loss who rely on lipreading to hold a conversation, they present a new challenge.
Louise Goldsmith, a profoundly deaf blogger, told the Standard that the growing use of face masks – and the need to keep two metres away from other people – was limiting her independence.
She said: “I was waiting in the queue for the checkout at the supermarket and the person behind the till told me to come forward.
“But because they were wearing a mask, I couldn’t understand them and I was just standing there for ages. It was pretty embarrassing.”
Action on Hearing Loss is pushing the Government to clarify what kind of face coverings people can wear that will have less of an effect on people with hearing loss – including masks with clear panels over the mouth.
These clear masks are not appropriate for medical use and are not available in the UK at the moment, Action on Hearing loss said.
And Ms Goldsmith said that she doubted that the clear masks would be much use.
“I’ve heard that when people speak and breathe the masks can fog up and it gets much harder to read their lips,” she said.
She added: “But it’s a good start and hopefully something to build on in future.”
Deafness is sometimes called “the hidden disability” and the impact of coronavirus lockdown on people with hearing loss seems to have gone largely unnoticed.
But neither Action on Hearing Loss nor other deaf activists are demanding an end to the lockdown or for people to stop wearing face masks. They just want the Government and everyone else in the UK to speak more clearly.
https://keynshamhearing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Tinnitus-Devon.jpg427640adminhttps://www.keynshamhearing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/logo-300x79.pngadmin2020-05-26 16:51:382020-05-26 16:51:38How coronavirus lockdown hits deaf people harder than most
Starkey Launches Livio Edge AI and Several Firsts at Hearing Innovations Expo
Starkey Hearing Technologies unveiled its latest hearing aid, the Livio Edge AI, on Thursday, the opening day of the company’s Hearing Innovation Expo, held in Las Vegas and attended by a reported 3400 hearing care professionals from 60 countries. The new hearing aid—which features a 2.4 GHz custom hearing aid with rechargeability option and hands-free connectivity to new popular smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S10—will be available in North American in February 2020.
Livio AI, featured as one of TIME magazine’s Top-100 best inventions of 2019, is designed to provide exceptional sound quality and hearing in noise in addition to: serving as a fitness app by tracking the number of steps you take each day; offering a “brain health score” based on daily social engagement and active listening; using inertial sensors for fall detection and alerting caregivers; receiving voice commands so Siri can act as your mobile personal assistant; utilizing pre-set timely reminders from you to take your medications; translating and transcribing 27 languages; and streaming audio from music and TV shows.
The new Livio Edge AI has been engineered to “go beyond” these features. According to presentations by Starkey CTO and EVP of Engineering Achin Bhowmik, PhD, Chief Audiology Officer Sara Burdak, AuD, and Chief Innovation Officer David Fabry, PhD, the new Livio Edge AI also includes:
• Edge Mode applies artificial intelligence (AI) for patient-driven, on-demand fine-tuning of the sound environment. The hearing aid user can double-tap on the hearing aid to initiate Edge Mode, which through an environmental analysis of the sound can provide an “extra boost” when in challenging listening situations. A demonstration was provided of a conversation in a noisy stadium where the crowd noise was dampened so a nearby person’s comments could be heard.
• 2.4 GHz custom hearing aids with Li-ion rechargeability, reportedly an industry first. Livio Edge AI is expected to provide 23 hours of hearing and 4 hours of streaming on a 3.5 hours charge.
• Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy (including S10) phones are added to the connectivity options of smart-phones with direct streaming to the new Livio Edge AI Premium.
• Voice-activated and tap-activated commands can directly control the hearing aid by tapping and talking (ie, for increasing volume or changing listening modes). It can also provide access to Siri, the “intelligent assistant” for iPhone users. Using the Thrive Assistant feature in the Thrive app, patients have instant access to a world of information at their fingertips, getting in-ear and on-screen notifications for tasks like taking medications or a reminder to pick up milk on the way home from work.
Self-Check Baseline: Patient-centered care is becoming patient-driven care. With Self-Check, the patient can perform a diagnostic test of the hearing aid system anytime, on their own.
Sara Burdak and David Fabry explain the key features of Starkey’s new Table Mic.
Additionally, Starkey introduced its Table Mic, a handy remote microphone that can be placed on a table and either set to automatic mode or a manual mode where the user can direct the beamformer in up to two directions. As with other remote mics, the Table Mic is capable of improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by 12-15 dB, compared to 3-4 dB by the industry’s best digital noise reduction hearing aid algorithms.
Starkey also introduced three apps or app modifications:
• Thrive, the current user-control app for Livio AI hearing aids, has undergone a makeover designed to give it a cleaner look and feel. The new streamlined user interface is intended to make the Livio experience more transparent and easier for the hearing aid wearer.
• ThriveCare is an app for the caregivers of the hearing aid user so they can stay informed in real-time about the user’s hearing and safety status; it is designed to provide peace of mind for care providers and to help the hearing aid wearer live independently and safely. For example, it can monitor and report on the hearing aid wearer’s number of steps, use of the hearing aids, and time spent in social interaction. Dr Fabry also pointed out that ThriveCare data can be shared with friends and colleagues who also have Livio hearing aids in order to compete in the various metrics monitored by the hearing aid.
• Balance Builder is a new app intended to help improve patients’ balance and reduce risks of falls through a series of at-home interactive exercises. The user is guided through balance exercises and workouts, based on head movements detected from sensors in Livio Edge AI hearing aids. As a “trainer” app for balance, it is designed to strengthen the user’s balance, stability, and gait, and help prevent falls and improve user confidence.
Dr Bhowmik stressed that Livio AI is—first and foremost—a hearing aid dedicated to providing the best sound experience in the hearing industry. In an interview with Hearing Review, he was careful to emphasize what shouldn’t be lost in all the new (and upcoming) features is the sound processing and the advancements made in helping people to understand spoken language. With Edge Mode, for example, the device uses AI and multiple parameters in the hearing aid that are unique to the acoustic snapshot of the current listening environment.
Looking to the Future of Healthables
“The ear is the new wrist—except better,” says Bhowmik, noting that having sensors within the ear canal opens up a wealth of possibilities for monitoring body and health-related functions, even beyond the current activity tracker and sensors found in Livio hearing aids.
Starkey CTO and EVP of Engineering Achin Bhowmik, PhD, explains Edge AI during the Starkey Hearing Innovation Expo.
Dr Bhowmik explained that several of the world’s largest companies—including Apple, Intel, IBM, Google, and Microsoft—are working on the “edge of AI.” Intelligence is moving towards edge devices with increased computing power which combine sensor data and AI algorithms that drive machine learning. “Edge AI, simply put, is an implementation of artificial intelligence that builds on distributed computing,” said Bhowmik. “We have a processor in the hearing aid itself, and we connect to the power of an iPhone or Android phone, which is connected to the Cloud [which has enormous computing power]. We connect smart devices to the smart Cloud; unlike traditional AI, where the cloud is smart, but the device not so much. To do Edge AI, we have to work with the best in the field to re-architect the AI engine—the machine infrastructure [that brings] the technology to the edge.” Bhowmik says we are seeing only the beginnings of this technology emerge today. He believes that, while other companies in the hearing industry will also start to employ this type of machine learning, Starkey will already be moving to the next level at that point.
He also offered some glimpses of “cutting-edge AI” development in the near-future, extending Livio Edge AI’s sensor-based “healthable” technology for monitoring:
• Cardiovascular health. The current Livio AI contains a heart-rate sensor; however, due to problems associated with impression-taking/earmolds and the sensor contacts, it has not been implemented yet. Starkey expects to be able to add this soon to Thrive as part of its fitness tracking. Other areas being looked into are oxygen (O2) saturation in the blood and blood pressure.
• Body temperature. A built-in sensor to monitor core body temperature.
• Visual assistance. With the help of some kind of camera or optical device, the hearing aid can identify and describe what the hearing aid wearer is seeing;
• Emotion sensing. A capability to detect if the wearer is happy, sad, depressed, relaxed, etc, and offer possible options, if needed.
• Voice analysis. The capability for the hearing aid to “sense” if you’re feeling stressed or in need of help, and ask you discreetly if you’re in need of assistance.
Look for the upcoming report on the Starkey Innovations Expo and Hearing Review’s interview with Dr Bhowmik in a future edition of HR online news.
Keynsham hearing centre knows that Depression and hearing can be linked.
Depression and hearing loss link found by researchers.
New report into depression and hearing has been published. We at the Keynsham hearing centre are well aware of this link and can help with making your hearing a little better.
Bristol hearing and Ear wax removal centre is at the Keynsham hearing centre the independent hearing and ear wax specialist covering Bath, Bristol, & Somerset. If you are having issues with hearing in general we can conduct a hearing test at Keynsham. The comprehensive hearing test will take around an hour of your time, but the results will be know there and then putting you in control of your hearing. We can then discuss what hearing instrument (hearing aid) you may need if required. There could be other issues at play if you are not hearing as well as you think you should be. We can before the test look to see if you have any ear wax present. Ear wax isn’t usually an issue, we all need a little for good ear health. However in some cases excessive ear wax build up can become an issue and if you have excessive ear wax we will clear this before any test is conducted.
Depression and Hearing link, Bristol
Ear wax removal is very easy and painless. We use the Microsuction ear wax removal method as this really is the gold standard of ear wax removal. We also can use the older method of ear wax removal called irrigation or some may know this as ear syringing. This method uses warm water to gently irrigate the ear to help release the ear wax out from the ear.
So if you are having some hearing issues and would like afamily run professional ear wax removal service then book an appointment. We can discuss at the appointment any of the issues at length. After all we are all ears!
Ear wax removal Bath and Bristol
Keynsham Hearing News:
Bringing world wide news on hearing to our local area.
Study Shows Older Adults with Hearing Loss at Higher Risk for Depression
Keynsham hearing centre
The results of a study investigating the connection between hearing loss and depression found that older adults with some form of hearing loss were 47% more likely to also have depression symptoms, according to an article in Reuters.
Bristol Hearing centre
Originally published in The Gerontologist, the research reviewlooked at 35 previous studies encompassing 147, 148 participants, who were at least 60 years old.
“We know that older adults with hearing loss often withdraw from social occasions, like family events because they have trouble understanding others in noisy situations, which can lead to emotional and social loneliness,” lead study author Blake Lawrence of the Ear Science Institute Australia, in Subiaco, and the University of Western Australia in Crawley, was quoted as saying in Reuters.
Additionally, the article goes on to add that the brain may work harder to interpret sound from a weaker auditory signal, draining resources needed to maintain working memory or other cognitive functions. A weaker signal may also cause the “reorganization” of neural pathways, potentially changing the way depression is regulated in the brain.
Ear syringing Bath
In a new white paper produced by The Hearing Review and sponsored by Hamilton CapTel, “Depression, Hearing Loss, and Treatment with Hearing Aids,” audiologist and educator Victor Bray, PhD, reviews previous landmark studies as well as more recent research into the complex relationship between hearing loss and depression. The paper helps identify patient populations who might benefit most from hearing devices. Additionally, Dr Bray’s webinar “Depression, Hearing Loss, and Treatment with Hearing Aids,” discusses the risk factors for depression among people with hearing loss as well as why hearing care providers should screen for depression when risk factors are present.
https://keynshamhearing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Keynsham-Hearing-Centre-ear-wax-removal-hearing-aids-Bath-Bristol-Somerset.jpg360640adminhttps://www.keynshamhearing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/logo-300x79.pngadmin2019-05-02 17:37:412019-05-02 17:37:41Depression and Hearing loss
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
