Shipra Ojha recently received a professional development award from Odicom.HAVING access to the many remarkable advances in technology is one of the most satisfying aspects of being an audiologist in 2008, according to Shipra Ojha.
There is still a low acceptance of hearing problems and it is often a family member who comes in asking if there is something that can be done to help with the frustrations and limitations of deafness.
“It’s the old thing that hearing aids won’t help me, or they have seen other people struggle with them, but now, with the superior technology we can come very close to providing 360 degree hearing,” said Ms Ojha, the principal of Hearsmart clinics in Lilydale and Healesville.
Ms Ojha qualified in India as an audiologist and speech pathologist but since coming to Australia 13 years ago has worked solely in audiology.
She was very pleased recently to receive a professional development award from Odicom, a world leader in research into hearing aids.
Talking of the impact hearing loss can have on people’s lives, Ms Ojha said Hellen Keller, who was blind and deaf, said it best.
“Keller said ‘Blindness isolates you from things, but hearing loss isolates you from people’. I think the ability to communicate with the people around you is just so important,” Ms Ojha said.
In addition to the new era of hearing aids now available, Ms Ojha said new technology solutions include things such as wireless headsets for mobile phones and usb devices for laptop computers which transfers everything through to a hearing aid.
Hearsmart clinics are located at Yarra Valley Clinic in Healesville and at Lilydale Medical Centre in Lilydale.
Phone 9735 7777.
