“What is the one thing you want my students to take away from this presentation?” the teacher asked the panel over Zoom. The three of us, all people with hearing loss, were addressing a graduate school class on aural rehabilitation. To me, the answer was clear: empathy. In this post for Ida Institute, I discuss what empathy means to me and why I consider it the secret ingredient in person-centered care. Read an excerpt below.
Read the full article click here.
What is empathy?
Empathy is defined as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” In the context of hearing care, empathy helps you imagine how you would like to be treated if you or someone you loved had hearing loss.
For example, if you had hearing loss, you would want your HCP to:
1. Ask you important questions and listen to the answers
This would include both the practical content of the answer – “I have trouble hearing at the dinner table with my family” – and the underlying emotional message – “I regularly feel isolated from the people who are most important to me.”
2. Value your lived experience
Nobody knows more about the nature of their hearing loss than the person themselves. Only they can truly assess the listening effort they expend in loud places or the ease (or not) at which they maneuver through an airport or a shopping expedition. Listen to their experiences – the good and the bad – so you can help them navigate more successfully.
3. Acknowledge your attitudes about hearing loss
There is much more to adjusting to hearing loss than adopting new technologies. Feelings of sadness and loss are common as we wonder if life will ever be the same. We miss the intimacy of hushed conversation with loved ones and the independence of communicating easily when out and about. Our self-image may also change as we battle societal stigma that still surrounds hearing loss. Or we may be battling our own internal negative self-talk.
How to develop empathy for your clients
We are all born with the capacity for empathy, but it can also be honed with practice. One important way to develop increased empathy for your patients is to learn more about the lived hearing loss experience.
Continue reading on Ida Institute for suggestions for doing just that.
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Of course empathy is important. But so is information. Does the client know all the things that can be done to alleviate the issue involved? Do they know how to position themselves at a gathering? Do they know about Assistive Listening Devices? Next to that is not making the assumption that a client can’t afford devices.
Very true. Person-centered care is more than just empathy, but it is a critical part. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
One of my audiologists is a man who has been in the field his entire career – he’s a very dedicated professional, does an enormous amount of research (doesn’t see patients very much anymore in fact) and is experienced and good at his job. He’s a very personable guy, listens very well to what I have to say about what’s working and what isn’t. So this is not a criticism of him – he’s great. But once not long ago I was talking to him about just general hearing loss stuff, and I mentioned that feeling when you have to have the joke repeated and explained, and all the fun has gone out of the conversation and you know it’s because of you. Any person with hearing loss is familiar with this, and I figured someone with a long career in the field would also be familiar. I expected him to say “Yeah, I hear about this from my patients all the time, it sounds terrible” or something of the sort. Instead he was quite excited, congratulated me on my insight, said “There’s a whole paper waiting to be written about that, I’ve never thought about that”.
And I thought “If someone like him, forty years of doing this stuff, and good at it, was unaware of this very common aspect of having hearing loss, there’s a disconnect somewhere important.” Either we’re not telling them, or they’re not asking, or?
Very interesting story. I am surprised too. We must continue to educate the professional community. Thanks for sharing your experience.