Hearing is not often something that people worry about until they reach their senior years or have something extreme happen. With the rise in usage of headphones and loud machinery usage in rural Saskatchewan, the government and hearing specialists are trying to provide education to the population.
"The Saskatchewan Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services is pleased that the Government of Saskatchewan has proclaimed May as Speech and Hearing Awareness Month as it helps focus public attention on the issues that derive from hearing loss," Saskatchewan Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Executive Director Roger Carver said.
As this month was declared as Speech and Hearing Awareness Month in Saskatchewan by Social Services Minister June Draude, the importance of hearing clinics is beginning to gain momentum.
"The purpose of the clinics is to give free hearing tests to anyone who would like one," explained Donna Gadica, hearing aid practitioner for the Carlyle and surrounding area clinics. "We also have clients in the area, and it gives them a chance to come to the clinic for service calls."
Almost one in five people in Canada suffers from some form of hearing loss. It's an issue that can impact people of any age. Some signs to watch out for include ringing in your ears, noticing that your TV volume level is louder than it used to be and having trouble following conversations.
The worst thing people can do is ignore the warning signs.
"One of the biggest things is if you are visiting with friends and are just missing words out of the speech," Gadica informs. "It would be specifically noticeable in a crowd, where you have a group of people talking. It's not that they wouldn't hear anything; they would hear most of the sentence, but maybe miss one or two words. So then it would just be difficult to figure out what they were talking about."
Donna Gadica has been in the business for three years, and holds clinics in 15 different towns. She is more specifically a board certified Hearing Instrument Specialist.
Carlyle is lucky enough to host hearing clinics every 5 weeks and takes appointments for these visits via Personal Hearing representatives.
These events take place in the offices at Memorial Hall, and normally run the majority of the day, from 12 p.m. until 7 p.m.
"It's a very good service for the people we serve, mainly the elderly." said Gadica. "They find it very difficult to go to the larger cities where they have offices, therefore we bring the clinics to them."
For more information about the clinics or hearing loss contact Personal Hearing services at 1-800-836-8088 or visit their website at www.personalhearing.com
