My grandma is living in an assisted living facility. I went to visit her and noticed she couldn't hear/see. The nursing home people said that her hearing aids were lost because she would put them in her pillow and they would get thrown in with the laundrey. I contacted my aunt, who is the one who makes decisions based on medical things for my grandma to see how I could help with replacing her hearing aids..she said "she just loses them and they didn't even do much good anyways." I am not sure what to do...I want to help but cant overstep the one who has legal power over her medical stuff. Nay advice would be greatly appreciated..the poor women cannot even watch TV or listen to music.

Caringgranddaughter, I know this is a sad and frustrating situation for all involved. Such items being lost, broken, or stolen in NHs is all to common, and I don't have a remedy. Chances are your Aunt has been through this all before and what seems to be callous is really resignation. The time and expense involved with replacing these articles is not neglegible. There is transportation to the appropriate specialist, time spent in waiting, the difficulty of having the loved one give the responses necessary to get the right fit or prescription on top of the expense. In order for them to do any good for her, Mom's last pair of hearing aids cost $6, 000 (that's right, 6 grand). Are you in a position to help with the time and cost involved? If so and that is the problem for your aunt, perhaps your offer to help will change your aunt's mind. I wonder how many times the "aids" have gone missing before.

It could be that your aunt simply doesn't want to be bothered, or she could be crying herself to sleep each night in frustration. I don't know her so really can't guess. What I can recommend is lots of visits from you and others who care. Someone will come along soon with something more helpful to say, I'm sure.

Welecome to ECO, it is always good to meet some one who cares about an elder.

Caringgranddaughter, you (and Grandma) certainly have my sympathy. Bobcat is right about the expense and difficulty involved in obtaining hearing aids. And she is likely right about Grandma losing them a little bit too often.

But, the situation that your grandmother is in is not only pitiable but dangerous, as well (at least in my opinion). My mother-in-law is legally blind (macular degeneration) and totally deaf without her hearing aids. She would not only be miserable, but also unable to function without them.

If grandma has had her hearing aids replaced recently (like within the last couple of years) it is quite likely that the clinic still has her prescription and the mold available to them, and can simply reorder another set. This, at least , would save a couple of trips and the associated fees. ...No audiograms, bone conductions, tympanograms, mold-making, etc. ...likely, only the final fitting would be required.

On another note, I am wondering whether one can purchase insurance for hearing aids. It seems like such a thing could be done and that this might be a great help. It also seems to me that since Grandma is in an assisted living facility, she could get a little assistance from the staff in making sure her hearing aids had been properly stowed before retiring in the evening (it's not good for the skin of her ear area to be sleeping with them all of the time)...At the very least, couldn't staff routinely shake out the sheets before they are wadded up and sent to the laundry?! I know that your Grandma is not the only resident prone to losing things in bed. My MIL even lost her dentures in bed once! So, a sheet-checking policy would not be an inordinate amount of extra work that could really save residents a lot of grief.

Good luck! I sure hope that everything will work out for your grandma!

...oh, and another thing... I know the cost is a concern, but if Grandma could even get ONE hearing aid at a time it make a world of difference for her and it would be much more manageable financially.

CG welcome in glad to meet you.
Im a lil miffed IF in fact the ALF lost them then it is THEIR responsibility to replace them just like if a piece of her jewelry went "missing" they have to compensate her somehow.
At point of entry everything your grandmother had was inventoried *written down* if hearing aids were a part of that inventory then they have a responsibility to replace them or reimburse the cost of them.
I agree with BC though that your aunt might be throwing up her hands in frustration because its happened too many times.
You have spoken to your Aunt I see and she did give you an explanation but did you offer help in acquiring another set for your gran?
They are expensive to replace just ask BC
Maybe you can speak to your aunt if you still want to help one last time to see where she stands, like what was said its a hardship to replace all the time and maybe grans hearing is not worth all the problems it will incur in getting another set because I cant imagine your aunt would allow her mother to go without hearing if she was able to.
Im sorry if this upsets you sweetie but your aunt is her guardian and knows intimately everything that is happening in your grans care.
Now is this your mom or dad's mother and where are they in all this? Maybe they can help?

We get a lot of calls about my MIL's hearing aids. She keeps telling people she doesn't wear them because they are broken. They are NOT broken. We have taken them in more than once to have them checked. But we still occasionally get a hostile phone call from somebody we haven't been through it with. And we've gotten to the point where we're a little testy about being questioned.

We think, in her case, that she's remembering when they were new and we had them programmed with the little button that turns them off so that they don't whistle when she's talking on the phone. She tends to fiddle with them, and kept accidently shutting them off. We had them reprogrammed so that all settings are "normal" but she hasn't wanted to wear them since.

The reason we had that feature put on was because she lost a couple of pair when she took them out and wrapped them in a kleenex because of the whistling, and the housekeeper threw them away. They do all kinds of crazy stuff with those little hearing aids. And certainly it would be unreasonable to expect housekeeping to closely inspect every wadded tissue they find on the floor.

Perhaps a good solution would be to get her the larger type of hearing aid, or one of the old fashioned ones with the amplifier that attached to their clothing and earphones that plug in.