My dad (95) lives with my mom (94)(dementia) in own home. Dad is quite hard of hearing but refuses to get hearing aids. Last year following strike, I found an audiologist who came to house, confirmed 40% hearing loss, and bent over backwards over 8 visits to tweak hearing aid to dads liking. Finally Dad said no, insisting he can hear fine and it’s just that people don’t articulate. Tv is so loud no one can think, he yells a lot bc I guess he assumes the rest of world needs voice loud, which exhausts him and makes my mom (94) who has dementia upset! I’ve tried and tried to convince him but he gets angry and frustrated. I can see quality of his life is affected bc he misses out on conversations and/or is frustrated. Any advice? Don’t want to drag him to audiologist office with Covid. OTC hearing aids?
If your father is willing to wear glasses to read, you might remind him that wearing hearing aids to hear is the same. A simple version of the explanation (and if you are an audiologist, please don't yell at me) is that hearing is handled by what are called "hair cells" that line the cochlea (inner ear). The hair cells are frequency specific so the ones that have transmitted sounds in normal voice range sort of wear out over time. So voice sounds in normal range get muffled and hearing aids help with that. If you raise your voice to speak louder to someone, the hair cells for that frequency range hear that as yelling. So then the person hears that as yelling, which it is.
He also said the rest of the world mumbles--seriously, says people are lazy and don't speak clearly.
I am just glad he has them and usually wears them. There is a learning curve and he missed it--as he is so stubborn he won't TRY to pay attention to others and such--a younger person would care more and try harder.
And yep, his cost well over $6K.
On this forum I've seen people suggest some pretty useful products that may help: devices that hang around his neck and amplify sound, headphones for him to privately listen to the t.v., etc. I can't remember what they're called but search on this site and or the internet to find them. I wish you success!
You can try asking him what would happen if mom fell and was calling for you and you could not hear her?
What would happen if the carbon monoxide or smoke detector went off, could you hear it? (by the way if they would go off at night even if he had hearing aids he would not have them in, might want to look into getting the kind with the flashing lights.)
What would happen if someone broke into the house? Would you hear the door open or the window break?
I doubt any of these would change his mind. But it is something for you to also think about. Maybe cameras linked to your phone? He might not like this option either and give him another thing to think about, if he used hearing aids a camera would not be necessary.
Again as long as he is competent you can't "make" him do anything.