4 Ways Hearing Loss Can Impact Your Staff

Senior living community staff members play a vital role in ensuring that a community meets its goal of maintaining and improving residents’ quality of life. As such, it’s important to understand and address any issues that may make it difficult for staff to do their jobs and communicate with residents effectively.

The high rate of untreated age-related hearing loss in senior living communities is one of these issues. In fact 81% of those over 80 have hearing loss and only 22% have hearing aids leaving 65% of your community residents living with untreated hearing loss. In this guide, we’ll address untreated hearing loss’s impact on your valuable senior living community staff members and how addressing hearing loss with tools, like Eversound, can benefit staff.

The value of senior living community staff

Working at a senior living community can be an amazing profession. Not only is it a profession that offers substantial benefits, but it also draws a very special group of individuals. Here’s a breakdown of some of the best benefits of working as a senior living community staff member.

Staff members have the unique opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of senior residents.

The benefits are mutual, as the elderly have a wealth of experience to draw from and share. Conversations with the elderly can leave you with powerful lessons that will stay with you throughout your life.

Moreover, there are special moments when a resident experiences a win or says something that makes your day that drives home just how rewarding the job is for staff members.

Job security is almost assured, as there will always be a need to care for some of the most vulnerable members of our society. This is especially true as medicine advances, and life expectancy is at an all-time high.

How hearing loss affects senior living community staff

Of course, even with all of those benefits, it can still be a challenging profession. Moreover, some senior living communities are unaware of the problems caused and exacerbated by untreated hearing loss in their residents. These problems can add unnecessary difficulties for your staff as they work to connect with your residents.

Here are the top four negative effects of untreated hearing loss on senior living community staff.

Creating communication issues. It is frustrating to constantly repeat something, regardless of the circumstance. Staff members may interpret this ceaseless repetition as a resident not listening, paying attention, or caring about what is being said. This frustration can make it twice as hard to communicate with residents effectively.
Hearing loss creates frustrations for the staff, but they also create frustrations for residents, as well. This frustration can result in a resident being more difficult to work with because they’re upset. They may become unreasonable and refuse to cooperate with staff. In these cases, it’s much more challenging for a staff member to make that personal connection with a resident, which is a major part of the job.
A major aspect of senior living is fostering that feeling of being a part of a community. Untreated hearing loss can make it difficult to facilitate group activities , which helps to bring the community together. Hearing loss can lead to social isolation and a desire to not participate in activities. When everyone is not participating in a group activity, it makes it difficult for the staff members who are managing the group and activity. You need to split your time, which creates twice the amount of work.
Hearing loss can lead to a 3x increase in falling. The fear of this can create an atmosphere of tension, which makes it much more stressful for a staff member. Stress can lead to a drop in successful job performance and deplete workplace morale.

Eversound can help

The solution to avoiding the negative effects of hearing loss within the senior living community is to address the problem and implement new tools to treat residents with hearing loss. Treating hearing loss can mitigate the negative effects of hearing loss within a senior living community. When hearing loss is treated or addressed, the results are:

Reduced stress and tension in the workplace environment for staff members.

Improved communication between staff members and residents and decreases conflicts due to ineffective communication.

More enjoyable and effective group activities as more residents will be inspired to participate in them.

Happier and more satisfied residents. who aren’t frustrated by the limitations that their hearing loss creates.

If your senior living community staff are being affected by untreated hearing loss, it’s essential to mitigate the problem early on. Fortunately, there are solutions and ways to address untreated hearing loss that can eliminate some of the above concerns and give your staff the best opportunity to truly love and enjoy their work. One of the best ways to easily address the effects of hearing loss is to make the necessary accommodations— starting with Eversound .

Eversound is a hearing assistance solution designed with senior living communities in mind. Eversound’s transmitters broadcast sound directly to Eversound headphones. For residents with hearing loss, Eversound headphones can be adjusted to amplify sound and reduce the effects of hearing loss when being worn. In short, Eversound provides a sound solution for senior living community staff and residents.

Want to learn more about how Eversound can help your senior living community staff overcome the effects of untreated hearing loss in residents? Get in touch today!