Disability, Deafness and Dementia

Dementia is a cruel and often heartbreaking condition that impacts the sufferer and all those around them. It is regarded as a disability because it causes a decline in cognitive abilities, such as impairments to memory, reasoning, thinking, and behaviours that interfere with daily life, leading to a decline in the ability to care for oneself. It is not a single disease but a syndrome of a progressive brain disorder that causes a decline in thinking, memory, and the ability to perform daily tasks. A person with any form of pre-existing disability may experience symptoms of dementia that are often more difficult to identify due to a lower cognitive baseline and overlapping health conditions. This may make it much harder to determine if a person’s functional decline is a new symptom of dementia or an expected part of their existing condition. Any diagnosis is further complicated by the potential for nonverbal communication and the need to rely more heavily on carers to report subtle changes in behaviours. This can often create challenges for us as counsellors.

Hearing loss and deafness can often increase the risk of dementia. Where there is a form of “brain overload”, with the brain straining to hear, this may detract from other neural functions, such as thinking and memory, as well as brain atrophy in those parts of the brain that process sound and memory. Whatever the state of hearing is, once dementia starts, it involves an ongoing and progressive decline, with unfortunately no cure. However, we can encourage more active brain activity, ensuring any hearing loss, to the extent possible, is alleviated with hearing aids and that a person does not feel isolated (which is often seen as both a risk factor increasing the likelihood of dementia and as a consequence of dementia when it sets in) and is engaged with a proactive care network. Modern interventions such as empathy and a positive sense of regard, clear and open communications such as using Auslan or Aboriginal sign languages where a person is deaf/hearing impaired, and engaging openly and respectfully with the client and the care network can be extremely helpful to facilitate their inclusion in society. While there is no easy answer in addressing dementia, particularly where a person is deaf or hearing impaired, we can all adopt a more person-centred approach to help those with the condition to stay active and feel alert to promote a real sense of inclusivity and a sense of togetherness in the community.
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