Hear here, free ear checks on offer

A FREE hearing check will be conducted by Hearing Australia at Meredith Community Centre next week.

The session will be open to residents aged 18 years or older and take place on Thursday 14 September from 10am until 2pm.

Elsie de Smet, community hearing advisor at Hearing Australia, will be conducting the checks.

“I go out into the community and I offer a 20 minute hearing check,” she said.

“The actual hearing check itself only takes about five minutes and is a matter of putting some headphones on and listening to some sounds that I play through the headphones, and they have to press a button to let me know they can hear the sound.

“We then have some discussion about how they think their hearing is and if they are struggling in any situation.”

Ms de Smet encouraged the community to come along whether they’ve noticed hearing loss or not.

“It’s very important for anyone to have regular hearing checks as part of your health,” she said.

“Your hearing can change really slowly, and you might not notice you’ve got hearing loss.”

Despite attitudes that hearing loss is an issue for older people, Ms de Smet said this is not always the case and young people should also get their hearing checked.

“When we’re young we have that attitude of ‘my hearing will be fine’ but we also go to concerts or festivals and listen to loud music,” she said.

“This can actually do a lot of damage to your ears, so you certainly don’t have to be old to have hearing loss.”

To book a free hearing check in Meredith call 5286 0700 or 0491 184 999.