How to get an elderly mother to use a hearing aid?

I read articles about hearing loss and told my mother in law that not only her ability to hear will be affected it would contribute to dementia and she would be more likely to fall. Falls are more common with hearing loss because it’s not just the auditory issue with ears getting older it’s balance and spatial understanding. She also has macular degeneration which has been kept at bay, but I told her if she went blind and couldn’t hear she would really be up the creek. I just badgered her with facts like that until she did it. She actually thanked me a couple weeks later and said she had enjoyed church for the first time in a long time. Love my mil.

Sadly, if someone does not want to wear hearing aides, there is virtually nothing you can do to encourage them. My hubby (age 66) finally had his hearing checked and yes, he definitely needed aides. Will he get them? Not a chance. He simply doesn't care.

Last night at a family BBQ he was talking so loudly--even the gkids were asking him to stop yelling. He yelled at me (his conversational tone) and one of my daughters said "dad, stop being a jerk to mom!" Nice of her to have my back, but he didn't hear her.

I don't shout at him anymore. I walk into the room where he is, get his attention and talk in a calm, normal tone of voice. Otherwise he misses everything.

It depresses me terrifically. It isn't 'about' me, but it sure affects me. I have appealed to DH to please meet me halfway on this and he simply, will NOT.

DH is an engineer. I thought THAT alone would entrance him into the 'techie' side of hearing aides. Nope, he doesn't care.

Yet he complains endlessly about his stone deaf mother. Go figure.

My hubby has the tv up so loud, we cannot hear if anyone is at the door! I wave at him and he gets annoyed because he has to mute the tv to hear me.

What I did, and we have only had it for 3 weeks, so early days yet.
In England, we have a site called Hearing Direct. So I went there and looked round a bit. Saw that there was some 'hearing assist' devices.
Settled on getting Geemarc CL7350 Opti Wireless TV Listener (Got it for £69 (ish) ) which is a bit costly but IF IT WORKS???

When it cam, I took a bit of time setting it up for him and then told him.
I called it TV BUDS. He loves it. I think there is a way so that he can keep them in and hear speech, but I have not yet found out how.

But I will settled for little miracles.

Good luck

It is really hard for the elderly to use hearing aides especially if Dementia is involved. First, they need to be able to follow the audiologist's directions. Then there is a fitting for the mold and then tweeking of the hearing aide. They r now digital and you have to be able to tell the audiologist what level is comfortable. A mold can be too tight so they shave it down. Then its wearing them. Yes, you can put them in for them because if they have arthritis they have a hard time. Then its adjusting them so they can hear, hard when its a little wheel and have arthritis. Yes they have where background noise can be lowered but its still hard to hear more than one conversation going on. My husband gets headaches trying to "hear" in crowds. My mother pulled out a tube from the mold because she pulled on it to take the mold out. DH had an Aunt who went thru a pkg of batteries because none of them worked. Once that orange tab is removed the battery starts to work. So she lost a pkg of not cheap hearing aid batteries. Another thing, batteries are hard to get in.

The cost is not cheap. My DHs are around 2k each. Shakingdustoff, That box with the wire maybe the best thing. Not trying to discourage anyone from getting aids just trying to explain why ur parents don't use them. And, its hard for us to know if the mold is too tight or is the volume set comfortably for them. For them, they don't have the patience to deal with them.

Back long ago one way my Dad got his own Mom to start using a hearing aide was to have us whisper when we were around her. Sure enough it worked :)

Now when my own Mom got hearing aids her hearing was just about totally gone, thus I still had to shout when talking. I was very embarrassed whenever I was shopping with her, as people probably thought I was yelling at my Mom.... [sigh]

I gently told my mother that it was rude to force other people to shout, or to appear to be ignoring them when really she wasn't hearing them. She was embarrassed, and finally got hearing aids. (Which don't always work miracles, by the way.)

Tell her how her hearing loss affects you. How you have to shout into her ear just to talk to her, that it gives you a headache, that people are going to just stop talking to her because it's such hard work to have a conversation with her. Tell her you love her and that you want her to be a part of life and she won't be if she can't hear anything that's going on.

If you figure out the answer to that one, I would love to know. I cannot get my Mom to believe she needs hearing aides or that she even has a hearing problem. But, I always feel like I am yelling at her because I have to raise my voice sometimes for her to hear. I keep trying to get her to have them checked at least and then maybe they would tell her she needs them and she might listen. I just wish she would get a hearing aide, I know she would like it better to be able to hear rather than keep saying repeat that.
I love her, so much!