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.’
This also called for increased access and availability, with government, policy makers and educational institutions taking action to implement policies that ensure the impact of hearing loss and the importance of the audiology profession is known.
James Thomas (pictured), audiology director of trading, UK and Republic of Ireland, at Specsavers, said raising the profile of audiology is vital because there has been difficulty in recruitment and a shortfall of talent due to increased demand on the services. ‘One of the biggest challenges is the speed at which the audiology sector is growing. More people with hearing loss are presenting at our practices across the country, largely due to an ageing population and people in work longer.
‘The sector needs to train as many audiologists as possible and deliver them into the role, which is a challenge across the sector. Specsavers is investing in the recruitment of audiologists because of the growing demand. There’s also a need to increase awareness of audiology careers, not just among the younger generation but also those looking at second or third careers later.’
He added that audiology is not given the spotlight enough at A-level or university level, therefore, it is often not a well-known career choice and a lot of education needs to be done to change this. As a result, Specsavers has created an early careers role to help spread awareness of the profession.
Improvements were also needed in the sector to ensure more collaboration between institutions, primary care and secondary care, to allow better use of audiologists in occupational health checks and children’s hearing checks. Forshaw said: ‘There is very little access or involvement of audiologists in workplace hearing programmes as occupational health surveillance for noise-induced hearing loss are most often undertaken by occupational health nurses or technicians. With referral to a GP or occupational physician when hearing loss or other problems are detected. This seems a massive missed opportunity for the profession, with a captive audience requiring hearing checks by law.’
When asked about benefits and consequences of audiology services being increasingly combined into optical practices, Thomas said: ‘It is a one-stop shop for your eyes and your ears. It’s more convenient for the patient. Having the two elements together also drives awareness of the different services available, which is positive. With growing demand, space can be a challenge, but it is one we are working to meet through a capacity building plan.’
There is great importance around the services as hearing loss has such a high impact on quality of life. ‘Audiology can change people’s lives by supporting people’s communication skills and reducing social isolation by keeping them more engaged with friends, family and society. It also has the potential to help keep cognitive levels higher through an engaged life,’ he added.
Forshaw also noted that the profession needs to focus more on preventative measures, and education for patients to support hearing care before conditions become detrimental. She said: ‘The audiology profession remains focused on treatment of hearing and ear conditions and access to hearing aids. There is very little public health or youth health education and intervention. The skills and knowledge of the profession need to refocus on prevention and protection of hearing health.
‘The growing body of evidence on the links with dementia and cognitive decline, alongside isolation, loneliness and increased stress, should provide the impetus but the profession needs to place itself at the heart of these discussions and debates and be involved in raising the profile of the preventable nature of hearing loss,’ she added.