AH Mag - Autumn edition 2015

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AH hearing

M A G A Z I N E

- Autumn 2015 Edition -

Broadcaster and gardening expert Peter Cundall shares his journey to better hearing

Take a look inside.....

Know your noise

hearing.com.au

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Listen up! New hearing aids are almost ‘superhuman’

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How to stay connected in your home

About us For over 68 years, Australian Hearing has been dedicated to providing hearing care for Australians. We are the nation’s leading hearing specialist and largest provider of government funded hearing services.

We provide subsidised hearing care for aged pensioners, veterans, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders over 50, and children and young adults under 26. To find out if you are eligible, call us on 131 797 or visit www.hearing.com.au. If you require an interpreter, call 131 450 (TIS national) and ask to be connected to Australian Hearing.

Contents 3. Know your noise 4. Peter Cundall 6. Superhuman hearing aids 7. Types of hearing aids 8. Staying connected at home 10. Roger to the rescue 11. 2015 Hearing Bus Tour

Frozen Fever comes over Princess Channae When Kailin Hendy’s little girl Channae turned four years old, she noticed that her daughter was withdrawing from large groups of people and having difficulties with her speech. This made the Queensland mum wonder whether her daughter had trouble hearing.

After a visit with an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, Channae was referred to her local Australian Hearing centre where it was confirmed that she needed hearing aids. Fast forward to late last year, Channae was fitted with her first pair of hearing aids by Australian Hearing and it’s made a huge difference in her speech, listening skills and confidence.

“Before wearing hearing aids, Channae would only sing the same three words from the ‘Let It Go’ song in the movie Frozen. But after two weeks wearing hearing aids, she learned the song from start to finish! She’s really come out of her shell,” Kailin said.

Head over to Australian Hearing’s Facebook page to catch a photo of Channae proudly wearing her bright pink hearing aids.

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AH Magazine Autumn 2015 Edition

The research division of Australian Hearing – the National Acoustic Laboratories – recently launched a fantastic new website called Know Your Noise. The website includes useful resources such as a Noise Risk Calculator, an online hearing check and a Decibel Database.

It was developed in the main for young Australians to know if they have dangerous listening habits, enabling them to calculate how much noise they have consumed after they have been clubbing or to music concerts or other noisy events.

Visitors to the website can quickly fill out an online survey that calculates their noise exposure risk, based on lifestyle habits and be provided with suggestions on how they can manage these risks.

Check out the new website at: knowyournoise.nal.gov.au

Help at hand for Aussie kids struggling to hear the teacher It’s estimated that over 60,000 Aussie school

kids have a Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) which means they will struggle to hear their teacher.

CAPD is a variety of disorders that result in a breakdown in the hearing process. Instead of a child hearing their teacher at the front of a noisy classroom for example, they hear a jumble of sounds. Children with CAPD can get frustrated, their school work can suffer and they get tired from trying to hear.

Australian Hearing’s CAPD assistive service includes the breakthrough LiSN-S test, which diagnoses a specific type of CAPD called Spatial Processing Disorder and the LiSN & Learn training program, which reverses the effects.

In clinical trials of the LiSN & Learn computer game, 100 per cent of participants improved their hearing ability in noise, and almost all achieved normal ability.

Ten year-old Vienna Pisana was diagnosed with Spatial Processing Disorder, and is now thriving at school and at home thanks to LiSN & Learn. Vienna’s mother, Belinda Pisana said, “LiSN & Learn has really made a difference to her happiness. I think some of Vienna’s teachers assumed she was a bit naughty and not too bright when in fact she was of high intelligence.”

Australian Hearing’s program is available for children aged over six and who do not have a hearing loss, but are suspected of having CAPD.

LiSN & Learn has really made a difference to her happiness

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TV star’s hearing in full bloom Broadcaster and writer Peter Cundall is widely recognised for his wealth of gardening expertise, but it’s a little known secret that he’s also a proud supporter of Australian Hearing.

Between hosting radio shows and penning gardening advice, Peter recently spoke to Australian Hearing about his hearing loss and why others – men in particular – should take a page out of his book and get their hearing checked.

Before Peter became the popular face of longstanding TV show Gardening Australia, he served as an infantry soldier in the Korean War. It was his time in the army that also caused him permanent hearing loss.

“I was a machine gunner and we had on the front of every machine gun a device that sent sound forward. But most of us took it off and threw it away because the device was so heavy.”

“Without even realising it, that’s when the damage to my hearing started,” said Peter.

After leaving the Australian Army, Peter moved to Tasmania to start his own gardening and landscaping business before launching the world’s first gardening talkback program in 1967. It was also around this time that Peter first realised he had issues hearing.

“The first problem I found was tinnitus, which sounded like rushing water. Later on, I found that if there was a group of people in a room talking, I’ll quite often be sitting there missing some of the points that they were making. So I would be forced to say, ‘Excuse me, would you mind saying that again? ” To help with his hearing loss, Peter was fitted with hearing aids, but he found the devices uncomfortable and ineffective. After 10 months of trialling different hearing aid solutions, he started researching other hearing providers and came across Australian Hearing.

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AH Magazine Autumn 2015 Edition

“The reviews I heard about Australian Hearing were that they provided an extraordinarily high degree of active care and constant attention – and that is exactly what I experienced.”

After a thorough hearing assessment with an Australian Hearing audiologist, Peter opted for a very sophisticated pair of hearing aids which he describes as “so tiny that you can barely see them.”

“When I went out to my garden with my hearing aids, I found the noise incredibly distracting at first.

I never knew that birds could be so loud.”

“After I got used to them, it was like I was in a new world. I was back to being 22 years old, and I could hear everything again.”

Peter hops aboard the

Peter recently joined our Tasmanian team to kick off Australian Hearing’s bus tour of the Apple Isle.

The bus, which tracked over 3,000 kilometres, delivered thousands of free hearing checks throughout November to January.

When the hearing bus visited a military event in Campbell Town, Peter shared his hearing loss journey to patrons and encouraged others – especially men – to do something about their hearing loss.

“It’s tempting to postpone doing something about hearing loss. Men in particular tend to resist because they think hearing aids are some clunky mechanism. But of course, modern hearing aids are absolutely remarkable and can be virtually invisible.”

Natalie Sankey, Manager at Australian Hearing Launceston, said hearing loss is a significant issue in the community, with around 60 per cent of Australians over 60 suffering from some form of hearing loss.

being over 60 years old.”

“It’s very common for people not to do anything about their diminishing hearing, because it’s simply seen as a sign of ageing. But there are so many things that can be done to keep on hearing well and living life to its fullest potential, no matter what the age of the person.”

As part of the bus tour of Tasmania, Australian Hearing visited more than 30 regional and metropolitan towns across the state. ‘ The bus is just one of seven in the Australian Hearing fleet, which are expected to cover 253, 000 kilometres, visit over 1500 venues, offer over 6000 free hearing checks, and raise hearing health awareness over the course of 2015.

131 797

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“We know that Tasmania is the country’s oldest state, with a higher percentage of its population

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Listen up!

New hearing aids are almost ‘superhuman’ As technology races ahead to enrich every part of our lives, hearing aids have also advanced to almost superhuman proportions.

underwater, tiny discreet aids that are almost invisible, and now these new aids enable better than normal in both ears in certain situations.”

A new hearing aid has been developed that is so advanced that for the first time, wearers can understand speech in demanding environments better than people with normal hearing*.

But the new technology doesn’t stop at great sound.

Users are able to pull out their mobile phones and using an app, direct the microphones in their hearing aids, to the sounds they want to focus on.

Adjustment of audio settings, direct streaming from the television and taking phone calls are just some of the advanced features of the new hearing aids.

Emma Scanlan, Principal Audiologist, Australian Hearing, said the aids are considered the next wave of all-encompassing technology.

“This is an exciting development and another way in which we can support those with hearing loss.

The feedback from our clients is unprecedented, and the results have been resounding. They have the ability to hear as clearly as before their hearing loss, in situations that would have been really difficult before.”

“Hearing technology has advanced so far from the clunky hearing aids of the previous decades.

We already have hearing aids that can be used

Remote control hearing Want to connect wirelessly with your hearing aids?

Then our range of remote controls and streamers can make life easier.

Our latest streamer, the easyTek, lets you hear your Bluetooth audio devices, such as your mobile phone or TV, directly through your hearing aid. And adding to its functionality, you can download the easyTek App to control your hearing aids through your Android or iOS smartphone.

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The easyTek App is a simple interface that operates directly from your mobile phone and is free to download on the Google Play or Apple App stores.

The new devices are available now at Australian Hearing centres nationwide. *Two clinical studies have shown that binax provides better than normal hearing in certain demanding environments (University of Northern Colorado, 2014; Oldenburg Hörzentrum, 2013): Speech Reception Thresholds (SRT) in cocktail-party situations improved up to 2.9 dB for wearers with mild to moderate hearing loss using Carat binax or Pure binax hearing aids with narrow directionality, compared to people with normal hearing.

Types of hearing aids

Want to find out about our different hearing aid technology levels?

Check out the table below

A hearing aid is a miniature amplification system.

The easiest way to categorise the type of hearing aid is to describe where it’s worn: put simply, hearing aids can either be worn in the ear or behind the ear. Its key parts include: 1. a microphone 2. an amplifier (most employ digital signal processing) 3. a miniature loudspeaker called a receiver 4. a battery

LEVEL

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This level of technology is ideal if you want the best there is for your hearing. These aids are fully automatic and adapt to whatever place you find yourself in. That means that even if you’re in a large group or a noisy area such as meetings or large scale events, you won’t need to adjust your hearing aids. They allow you to focus on the voices you want to hear, while reducing noise from other directions, (even if the sound is behind you).

LEVEL

In-the-ear (ITE) ITE hearing aids are used for mild-tosevere hearing loss. As the name suggests, these aids sit entirely within the ear.

Because they’re made to fit you snugly, you’ll need to have an impression taken of your ear.

In-the-canal (ITC) When an ITE hearing aid occupies a sufficiently small portion of the ear, it’s referred to as an in-the-canal (ITC) hearing aid.

Completely-in-the-canal (CIC) Hearing aids that fit entirely within the ear canal are known as completelyin-the-canal (CIC) hearing aids. These hearing aids use small components and don’t protrude into the outer ear.

Behind the ear (BTE) BTEs are used for all types of hearing loss from mild to profound. In these devices, the electronics and receiver are mounted in a banana-shaped case, and the sound is passed via a tube to a custom ear mould.

While they are still discreet to wear, they’re also typically more powerful than ITE varieties.

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If you like to spend time with family or friends but have trouble hearing in larger groups, restaurants, meetings or outdoors, the 5 series can help. They make listening in noisy places easier and are also great for listening to music or watching TV.

LEVEL

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The 3 series is best suited to moderate background noise such as during group conversations, small family gatherings, dinner at a restaurant or when the TV is on.

LEVEL

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These aids work well in noise, are smaller and come with a remote control.

LEVEL

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These aids work best if you spend most of your time in and around the home, and need help with hearing where there is little or no background noise, such as watching TV or participating in small group conversations.

ENTRY LEVEL

These aids are fully subsidised and can help if you have a quieter lifestyle.

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STAYING CONNECTED IN YOUR HOME If you have trouble hearing in everyday situations, there are many solutions available to help you hear the sounds that matter. Australian Hearing’s range of helpful devices for around the home can help you live in comfort and independently.

Don’t miss the doorbell Phoenix Wireless Door Chime • • • •

Portable wireless receiver to carry around with you means you won’t miss a visitor again Wireless range of 45 metres from the doorbell transmitter Portable receiver has a chime sound and a strobe flash light tube to alert you if the doorbell has been pressed Includes seven loud chime sounds

Amplify the sound of your phone and doorbell Oricom AM20 Doorbell and Phone Alerting System • • • • •

A simple to connect and use alerting device, that works with your existing home phone and comes with a wireless doorbell Sounds an extra loud ringer and/ or signals a super bright light when phone or doorbell rings Wall/desk mountable Includes an extra loud ringer that reaches up to 95 decibels, four alarm options, tone control (high/medium/low), three ringtone melodies and two doorbell melodies Can be powered through mains or battery operated (requires four AA batteries)

Emergency Phone with Smart Dialler Pendant Oricom CARE 170 Speaker Phone with Emergency Call Function • • • • • • • • • •

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Smart SOS dialler pendant is waterproof and can be worn around neck or wrist When pressed the pendant will alert selected contacts with a pre-recorded message and know you need assistance Pendant also allows remote phone answering by pressing the speaker phone button (no rushing to answer the phone) Extra loud ringer and amplified receiver Super bright flashing alert light Large buttons for easy dealing 30 Name and Number memory Hearing Aid compatible Talking Caller ID (announces the caller’s name or number loudly) Talking keypad (repeats number as it is dialled)

AH Magazine Autumn 2015 Edition

Feel safe in your home Brooks Battery Powered Smoke Alarm and Alerting System Early detection to all standard domestic fires types • 10 Year Lithium cell will outlast the useful lifespan of the alarm • Large easy to use Test/Hush button allows false alarm control • Built-in high audibility warning sounder • Plug in Vibration Pad • Visual RF transmission and power indicators • Rechargeable battery back-up with low battery power warning

Never sleep in again!

Bellman Pro Alarm Clock • • • • • •

Makes waking up on time easy with a high-intensity flashlight and a bed shaker that vibrates and makes sounds directly into your pillow Alarm signal gradually increases in volume so you have plenty of time to turn it off before others might be disturbed Includes smart alarm signal that sweeps through different frequencies Night light beacon means you can easily find your way back to bed if you get up Battery backup that kicks in if there is a power failure Ability to connect to your telephone to amplify the ring signal

EVERYDAY HEARING HELP Along with our range of alerting devices for the home, Australian Hearing also stocks other appliances to help you in everyday situations.

Enjoy the sound of your favourite TV show in comfort with wireless headphones

Suffer from tinnitus?

Relief is on the way

Sennheiser RS180 headphones

Sound Oasis Therapy System

Enhance speech and music in different listening situations

Wireless listening with your hearing aids

Bellman Audio Maxi

Sennheiser Set 840 S

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Roger that!

A wireless microphone in the shape of a pen can help hearing impaired people understand speech better than those with normal hearing at certain noise levels, a study has shown.

Called ‘Roger’ after the term used in radio communications to say a message has been received, it wirelessly transmits a speaker’s voice to a tiny receiver that clips onto the aid.

The pen - which can be placed flat on a table, used like a microphone or hung around a speaker’s neck - makes speech more intelligible over distance and when there is background noise, such as in a busy restaurant, in a meeting, or in a car.

Roger’s discreet pen shape and its ability to switch between amplifying sounds from all directions, or just one, makes it stand out from other devices.

Ask your local Australian Hearing team for more details.

Roger to the rescue for Collette Proud Matron of Honour, Collette Matthews, wiped away her tears as she listened to her sister, Leigh Matthews, deliver her speech at her Summer wedding in Wollongong.

This moment was particularly emotional for Collette, as not only was her little sibling getting married, but she was able to hear speeches clearly for the first time in her life.

Collette is profoundly deaf and has been a client of Australian Hearing since childhood, wearing hearing aids for the majority of her life.

Leigh Matthews, is a Hearing Health Promotions Officer at Australian Hearing in Wollongong, so knew all too well about the benefits of the Roger FM hearing system. She organised for Collette to be fitted with a Roger device in time for her big day.

The Roger Pen was attached to the microphone at the wedding reception and Collette wore the receiver around her neck. She could hear the speeches clearly, streamed through her hearing aids and felt completely involved in the action.

Collette is an active and valued member of her community, who has never let her hearing loss hold her back, to which her two teenage children can attest.

“Roger can help me prolong my hearing expectancy and it is easy and efficient to use,” said Collette.

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C ur o Troy t s bu g n i r ea h 5 1 20

The Australian Hearing National Bus Tour 2015 was kicked off by award-winning country singer and Australian Hearing Ambassador Troy Cassar-Daley, at the recent Tamworth Country Music Festival.

Throughout the year, up to nine of the iconic blue and white buses will cover 253 000 kilometres, visit over 1500 venues, offer over 6000 free hearing checks, and raise hearing health awareness.

Troy said he was delighted that the Tamworth Country Music Festival had been chosen to celebrate the start of the Australian Hearing National Bus Tour 2015.

“Without hearing, I wouldn’t have a career in country music, so I’m pleased I can help launch Australian Hearing’s important bus services during the most important Australian Country music get-together,” Cassar-Daley said.

“Hopefully I can spread the word to music lovers to take care of their hearing and get it checked regularly, so they can keep on enjoying the music and sounds they love.”

Details of the Australian Hearing National Bus Tour 2015 (based on a month in advance) can be found at www.hearing.com.au

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OUT AND ABOUT WITH AUSTRALIAN HEARING Our Parramatta and Port Macquarie hearing centres recently held Christmas parties in their community for families and friends. And it was all smiles for the children who attended!