Hi Tom
Your blog resonates so much with me. My Mum is in a Nottingham City care home with severe hearing loss and in her final journey towards the end of her life. Eleven years post Alzheimer’s diagnosis means I’ve had time to see the devastating effects of what this means to the person and the communication with family and care home staff.
Yes, care homes are noisy environments. The ambient noise causes distress. Mum used to remove her hearing aids and batteries were often flat prior to the loss as you mentioned.
I agree with you; care staff lack knowledge and skills to support hearing aids and to communicate effectively with residents and families.Language barriers and agency staff add to the mix and in Mums case her new hearing aid was only tolerated for two days before being lost. After we replaced them and they were lost again I accepted the loss as part of the dementia. Nothing was offered by anyone to help Mum. From this point on, Mums ability to communicate deteriorated in a number of ways.
I can’t communicate easily with Mum now. Her cognitive decline is difficult to witness. Families give up trying because nothing is done without considerable pressure on the care home. If they have inadequate staffing on shifts you have to back off as they are stressed themselves. Record keeping does not reflect that hearing loss has clear links with resident’s behaviours. I could write a book on what I think could be done in care homes (simply and cheaply) but it won’t make any difference to Mum.
Mum was a singer, pianist, organist, puzzle and cryptic crossword fan and much more. She is a Mum to three children and gave so much of herself to everyone. Staff will ask me after nearly five years in the care home ‘Oh I didn’t know she was Scottish’ or even realise she is deaf.
A transient workforce and poor handovers on new shifts mean that activities are not tailored to individuals. Activity co-ordinators are given impossible workloads meaning that group rather than individual activity is the only option.
I’m particularly interested in the questions of what works for whom, when, and under what circumstance in your evaluation. Hearing loss needs more research like yours and I look forward to seeing the results.
Jane Danforth – Carer
When people consider dementia research, they often think of trials of drugs to treat or slow the disease. However, understanding and combating the many and varied negative effects of dementia requires more than just drug trials. In my research at the Centre for Dementia at the University of Nottingham’s Institute of Mental Health, we’re looking at an important topic within dementia care where no drug is likely to be available: hearing loss in care home residents.
Dementia is common: there are about three-quarters of a million people with dementia in the UK. Hearing loss is common too: almost half of people in their 70s have some degree of hearing loss, and this rises to 80% in people aged over 80. The two conditions often occur together, especially among residents of care homes, where around 75% of residents have dementia and at least that proportion have hearing loss. Probably about 300,000…
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janedanforth 