Aural Rehabilitation

[mark ross]

Sarah Mason raises an important issue. The profession of audiology was 
founded, in large part, by the need to provide a/r services to 
those with service connected hearing losses. If Audiologists do not 
respond to the communication problems secondary to a hearing loss, 
if they do not help people and families adjust to the reality of a 
hearing loss, and help them take steps to reduce the handicap, then it 
will not be done. 

As it happens, an article I wrote (A Retrospective Look at the Future 
of A/R) just appeared in the last issue of the Journal of Academy of 
Rehabilitative Audiology. In it, I also review the position paper by Self 
Help For Hard of Hearing People regarding the routine inclusion of a 
group hearing aid orientation program after a hearing aid has been 
dispensed. 

Beyond all the debates regarding the AuD in all of its manifestations 
lies our activities and actions on behalf of the 
hearing-impaired public, and this seems to be getting lost in the
shuffle. 

Mark Ross