Anne’s sound story

I first became interested in audiology in high school. My mum was fit with hearing devices due to hearing loss from her cancer treatment. The devices lived in the drawer from basically the first week. I asked mum why she didn’t like them, and she said that the person who gave them to her spoke to her like she was an idiot (mum is very softly spoken) and just told her that these were the ones for her and mum didn’t really have much to do with it. She didn’t feel comfortable going back to the provider for any adjustments so she just put them away.

When I first started studying audiometry, I was able to convince mum to come in and see our TAFE teacher. She was fit again and has been wearing devices all day every day since. After mum’s experience, family members came out of the woodwork describing very similar experiences which just totally blew me away. I couldn’t believe that people would just put up with it! I now work in adult rehab and make a conscious effort every day to work with people to get them hearing better.

I first came across Caitlin through the Hear Me Out podcast, and then again at the InspirED conference. I was compelled to sign up to Soundfair after that. Her message was exactly what I have been trying to do since first becoming a member of the profession in 2009.