Time To Read: 5 minutes
Don’t be an Unhappy Statistic!
Don't buy a hearing aid before reading this guide! If you already have and you're not happy with them, then we have another guide which may help you here.
It was recently reported that on average 1 out of 3 (33%) people who get fitted with hearing aids in Australia, end up not using them over the long term. That could mean that thousands of dollars of your hard earned money could be ending up in the drawer.
Fortunately the news is not all bad. We have proven in a recent study that by taking certain steps, we were able to reduce the non-use rate to only 1 in 23 (4.36%). So you don't have to end up as an unhappy statistic if you follow the steps in the guide.
This is great news as hearing aids have been shown to improve quality of life, increase earning ability by around $10,000 per year, reduce negative emotional effects like stress, depression and anxiety. They can also improve relationships and recently evidence has been coming to light suggesting they might help reduce cognitive decline and dementia. So getting hearing aids that help you for as long as possible is critical for your health and well being.
Not everyone qualifies to become our client, but that does not mean we would leave you to fend for yourself.
How can you avoid being one of the unlucky ones?
None of us want to spend thousands of dollars on a solution that will just end up in the drawer.
Our unique processes are designed to deliver much higher usage rates than the reported industry average. Using these, and the results of our study, we have come up with the nine (9) top considerations to ensure you end up with a hearing solution which you will use over the long term.
We have summarised them below, but you can also get detailed descriptions in a download here:
Nine (9) considerations to finding a hearing aid solution that is most likely to give you optimal benefit over the long term:
- The Choice of company you work with is the most critical component - choose someone with evidence to show long term outcomes where possible
- The hearing aid you choose needs to be the right one to deliver results over the long term - make sure the selection process is evidence based and does not simply look at your lifestyle.
- The company you work with needs to have regular active recalls in place and you need to actually make use of them
- Only ever get the latest hearing aids as they sound and work better than older models
- Certain hearing aid brands perform worse than others - Stick to the larger well known European brands
- Certain hearing aid Styles perform worse than others - don’t choose invisibility over function
- Being only fitted in one ear might affect your usage rates negatively - use devices on both ears where possible
- The clinic needs to help you help yourself - they need to empower you to get the best outcomes through information.
- Company client satisfaction ratings may potentially be a gauge of how well a company performs in regards to usage rates - make sure they are for new and long term clients though.
