Note: Opinions and ideas expressed are those solely of the study authors and not necessarily of the Ida Institute.

Objective

Hearing impairment is known to cause various effects on both persons with hearing impairment (PHI) and their communication partners (CPs). In addition, CPs are reported to play an important role in the decision making to seek a consultation and accept intervention of PHI.

The overall aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of CP in the audiological enablement/rehabilitation of PHI keeping the clinical practice in focus.

Method

A literature review was conducted using a number of resources including electronic databases, books and websites.

Results

An overview of the literature was presented in the following sections:

1) Factors influencing the audiological enablement/rehabilitation of PHI

2) Effect of the PHI's hearing impairment on their CPs

3) CPs influence on the PHI's audiological enablement/rehabilitation

4) Positive experience reported by CPs of PHI

5) Models to represent CPs within the social network context of the PHI

6) CP involvement in the audiological enablement/rehabilitation

This paper also identifies gaps in literature and provides recommendations for further research.

Conclusions

It is clear that involvement of CP in the audiological enablement/rehabilitation will result in mutual advantages for both PHI and their CPs.

RelatedIdaTools

This study is related to the Communication Rings and GPS Tools.  

Zhao, F. and Kramer, S.E.

Publishing

This paper has been accepted for publication: In press, Audiological Medicine.