All About The Stigma and Benefits of Hearing Aids – Episode 77 with Dr. Brian Taylor
Description
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</figure>On today’s episode, you’ll hear from Dr. Brian Taylor, who is an audiologist as well as the director of clinical content development at Signia. Brian grew up in Northwest Wisconsin. He is also the author of a textbook titled: Relationships Centered Communication. During the first half of his career, he worked as a clinical audiologist in EMT practices in the Chicagoland area. He then worked for Sonus which was acquired by a company in Italy called Amplifon. He then spent some time at Unitron, and even moved to Italy for a bit where he worked for The global Amplifon group. Most currently, he is a proud member of the Signia.
6:00 – There are many stigmas that may get in the way of a consumer’s decision-making process. Styletto, Silk, and Active are all Signia brands that are types of devices that do not look like hearing aids and are ways to eliminate the barrier surrounding such stigmas.
11:00 – One can help fight against such stigma by having a conversation centered around all the positive outcomes that could occur if a patient were to take the next step upon their hearing-aid journey.
16:00 – As a consumer, you should feel comfortable with the professional that you’re working with, you want to make sure that you’re not being rushed and that you feel comfortable to ask questions. Pretty early in the appointment, you want to feel like the trust and rapport building.
18:00 – Avoiding certain places or relying on somebody else to be your communicator are maladaptive behaviors that an individual without a proper hearing device may get accustomed to. Thus, it is crucial to work with a professional that’s going to help you rethink your condition and acquire some better, more productive, kinds of communication behaviors.
21:00 – It is important for a loved one to sit in when a patient meets with their clinician because the loved one can reflect on how the use of hearing aids is not only helping the person wearing them, but also the individual(s) that spends a lot of time with them.
23:00 – Some of the positive outcomes of COVID include more usage of telehealth and remote care. Signia has a telehealth app that was kind of underutilized pre-COVID and now after COVID, a lot more people are comfortable using it.
30:00 – Age does not play a factor in who will and who will not be able to utilize hearing aid technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.
32:00 – For reassurance, hearing aid data is anonymized data. Also, if somebody doesn’t want their data being shared, it is okay to just turn all those settings off.
35:00 – There is a journey from being unaware of the problem to accepting that you need to do something about it. And that process, if you see a professional, they might be able to speed that process up and help you sooner rather than later. This will prevent problems down the line such as developing depressive symptoms, dementia, or cognitive decline.
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Email Brian at brian.taylor@wsa.com
Mentioned in this episode:
Relationships Centered Communication
Related Episodes:
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Transcript:
Lilach Saperstein:
Welcome back to the All About Audiology Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein and on this show, we talk about audiology and how it affects your life. It’s not just about hearing aids and hearing tests and X’s and O’s, but it’s actually really about how to communicate, how to connect with people, and I’m very excited to welcome today’s guest, Dr. Brian Taylor, who is an audiologist and the director of clinical content development at Signia. And so we’re going to be speaking about the latest and greatest in hearing aid technology, and also more about your history, your background, and your role with audiology in general, and particularly something that is very close to my heart and a big part of why I got into the field, talking about the stigma about hearing aids, especially for middle-aged, you know, young adults, middle-aged, I think there’s a lot of stigmas there. So welcome to the show. How are you doing?
Brian Taylor:
Great. Thanks for having me on your podcast, Dr. Saperstein, I appreciate it.
LS:
Awesome. So tell us a little bit about your background in audiology. How did you even come into the field?
BT:
Well, it goes back about 30 years ago. Like a lot of folks in audiology, I started off in speech pathology and found myself after one audiology class more interested in the hearing component than the speech component for various reasons. Just to give you a little bit about my background, I grew up on a farm in Northwest Wisconsin, about two or three hours from Minneapolis—that’s where I live now. And the first half of my career, I worked as a clinical audiologist in a couple of EMT practices in the Chicagoland area found myself in a private practice. This goes back about 20 years ago, also in the Chicagoland area. That private practice was acquired by a company by the name of Sonus, and if you’re over the age of 40, you might remember Sonus, who was one of the first large kind of corporate audiology entities. Sonus was acquired by a company in Italy called Amplifon. Amplifon’s headquarters are in Minneapolis. Amplifon also owns the Miracle Ear brand. And anyway, I found myself 18 years ago, moving from Chicago to Minneapolis where I’ve been and worked. I spent some time at Unitron. I spent some time in Italy as part of the global Amplifon group and am most currently a proud member of the Signia Group. Anyway, that’s my background.
LS:
Yeah, I think that’s super, super interesting, especially for young audiologists, and communication disorder students who are looking at their career options, and [thinking] ‘what are my options if I go into this field?’ And the very common thing that you mentioned was, I went in for a speech, and then that audiology class hooked me. You know, it’s kind of like, when you see the light, you’re like, oh, this fun, this is puzzles and technology, and devices. Maybe I’m into this more?
BT:
Yeah, no, that’s what’s great
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