Aural Rehabilitation
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Aural Rehabilitation
Ella Clayton
Aural rehabilitation, also known as audiologic rehabilitation, auditory rehabilitation, hearing rehabilitation, and rehabilitative audiology is an approach for assessing and managing hearing loss that is centered on the patient. A therapeutic environment is necessary for this approach in order to create a shared decision process to explore all possible methods to reduce the impact of hearing loss on a patient’s quality of life. In the aural rehabilitation process patient’s interpersonal, psychosocial, and educational functioning are taken into consideration when deciding on a course of action.
Speech-language pathologists often use aural rehabilitation to treat patients. It is the speech-language pathologist’s job to screen, assess, and work on rehabilitation with patients who have hearing loss. The Aural rehabilitation (AR) process allows speech-language pathologists the best possible tools to care for their patients and achieve desirable outcomes.
An AR assessment has multiple goals, some include identifying the impact of auditory complaints and hearing loss on communication, the impact on activities, patient participation, and quality of life. Some assessments are ongoing, and some are periodic depending on the needs of the patients. Some factors that could influence assessment length are evolving patient needs or the introduction of a device such as hearing aids or cochlear implants.
Counseling is also an important factor is aural rehabilitation. Counseling allows the patient to express their reasons for seeking audiologic help and can provide patients with outlets to communicate with others struggling with hearing and communication issues. Types of counseling in aural rehabilitation include informational counseling, personal adjustment counseling, and support groups.
Speech-language pathologists employed by Vertis therapy proudly use aural rehabilitation to reach the best outcome for the patient’s audiological needs!