In Focus: Raising the volume

A lack of awareness of the audiology profession and hearing care was highlighted as a key concern, hearing aid industry experts told Optician. ‘We know that, in the UK, people can take, on average, 10 years from onset of a hearing loss that would benefit from a hearing aid until they actually seek out support for this,’ said Clare Forshaw (pictured), founder and director at UK Hearing Conservation Association (UKHCA). ‘Generally hearing health checks are not included as part of children’s health, public health, geriatric health or even specific health condition check-ups like diabetes or workplace wellbeing. If we want the audiology profession to have an increased profile and make an impact on the health of our society, there needs to be a greater call for hearing checks and that requires the public to value their hearing and want to preserve it.’