Counseling for Psychosocial Stress Factors Associated with Hearing Loss

Audiologists play a major role in helping people with hearing loss learn how to better communicate and how to connect to the world around them. The purpose of this project investigates the extent to which audiologists counsel their clients for the psychosocial stress factors caused by hearing loss, along with determining the extent in which patients with hearing loss feel they would benefit from counseling services implemented into their appointments. In addition to psychosocial stress factors, the thesis will analyze the extent to which clients are educated on their hearing loss and given practical ways to adjust to their loss based on their individual lifestyle. The study will analyze the main reasons why people do not seek consistent audiology counseling when diagnosed with a hearing loss that can potentially disrupt daily routines and/or cause emotional distress while trying to adjust to the change in their hearing status. Additionally, the project will compare responses from those with hearing loss to the responses regarding audiologists’ perceptions, extent of training, and confidence level of counseling patients beyond completing a hearing test and programming amplification devices. Preliminary findings based on the results of 52 completed surveys from those with hearing loss (clients) and 42 completed surveys from audiologists indicated positive correlation between the client’s experience and the services provided by the audiologist. The majority of the responses about the education and adjustment strategies for hearing loss were consistent between the two groups. In regard to the counseling component, clients reported they did not feel they receive adequate counseling from the audiologist, and the audiologists indicated they did not receive adequate training in counseling