Did you know that October is Audiology Awareness Month? To celebrate, we asked Dr. Carrie Meyer, the Doctor of Audiology & Director of Clinical Programs at Amplifon Hearing Health Care (and WeShare partner!) to share about herself and the value hearing health brings to our overall wellness. This is a conversation that taught us so much more about the importance of taking care of our hearing than we knew before, so it’s a worthwhile conversation for our entire community to join in on.
Brittany Moses: We often think about hearing health as something for older adults, but it really impacts us at every stage of life. So how early should people start thinking about hearing health?
Carrie Meyer: Newborn infants in the United States get a number of tests before they leave the hospital, including a hearing test. So you should start being concerned about your hearing the day you are born, and it continues on from there…And if you think across the spectrum of your life—if you think about it for babies, we want to make sure they have the ability from the moment they are born to develop speech and language, right? Then you think about it in our school age children, you cannot learn to write, you cannot learn to read, you cannot spell or learn math if you can’t hear well. Then as we progress into our young adulthood, we have any number of things you want to think about…As we progress through our lives, we are more likely to develop hearing loss. So basically, audiologists say cradle to grave!
BM: Wow, I really appreciate the holistic approach that you’re sharing in all of this…One of the great things about WeShare is our commitment to caring for Members across every stage of life, which is why our WeShare Legacy program exists for Members that are ages 65 and older. And so how can programs like WeShare Legacy help remove some of those common barriers to hearing care?
CM: So I would hope that any of your Members would go to AmplifonUSA.com. That’s our website, and it gets you a whole bunch of wonderful things to do. First of all, we have articles on anything you can think of…The other really wonderful thing on there is a very simple, easy online hearing quiz. And I love it because it’s very low risk in the privacy of your own home. And then there are steps there with our provider locator to get a full hearing evaluation with a licensed provider as well.
Want to celebrate Audiology Awareness Month with us? With WeShare’s partnership with Amplifon, you can! WeShare Members can access hearing screenings and support through our partnership through the Member portal or Amplifon’s website.
