Selma residents will have the opportunity to have their hearing screened tomorrow. The project is called “Hear Here Alabama.” It’s sponsored by the University of Alabama to increase access to hearing healthcare in rural areas. A separate clinical study will focus on how to provide over-the-counter hearing aids to those who need them. *Marcia Hay-McCutcheon is a professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders at UA. She says hearing loss can be difficult for people to process.
“Hearing loss can result in some social and emotional issues, you know, when you start losing your hearing, and if you have trouble understanding what's happening in a conversation, you might just start to withdraw from those social interactions, because it's more hassle than it's worth,” said Hay-McCutcheon.
Hay-McCutcheon adds that data from the research may help in addressing hearing needs in the state.
“We needed to do the project to kind of move things along to be able to help people with hearing loss, who live in rural communities, where there aren't a lot of resources,” she said. “So, that has been the focus of the study since the very beginning. How do we provide resources to people who currently don't have any resources? So, you know, we were able to collect a little bit of research data, which we then use to get the funding from the National Institutes of Health.”
The “Hear Here Alabama” truck will be at The Center of Hope in Selma from ten am to two pm tomorrow. Participants must meet certain requirements to take part in the study.
