A NEW short film doesn’t just tell a story but also aims to get people thinking about hearing loss.
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The ending of Does Love Last Forever? can vary depending on how well the viewer can hear.
Camera angles, ambient noise and body language are used to challenge those who might be relying on more than voices to understand the conversation.
Does Love Last Forever has been created by CHE Proximity and Cochlear Limited, with Cochlear audiologist Emma Ramsay saying people often waited six years before acting on their hearing loss.
“I think there’s perhaps a perception, particularly with adults that there’s nothing they can do about it and it’s just a factor of getting older,” Mrs Ramsay said. “But I think that’s a shame because it can lead to social isolation and removing themselves from things they used to enjoy.”
Mrs Ramsay said 3.5 million Australians had hearing problems but many weren’t aware of the technology now available.
“The thing is, the longer you wait to get intervention, the less successful you’re likely to be,” she said.
“We want people to take action sooner.”
Leonie Mardling, who lives near Holbrook, knows firsthand the difference a Cochlear implant can make.
“It’s just been the most amazing thing,” she said. “To be a hearing person and then go deaf and then get your hearing back, you can’t put it into words, it’s extraordinary.”
Ms Mardling began losing her hearing in the late 1980s while pregnant with her children (“nobody can tell why”) and it continued to deteriorate until she became profoundly deaf.
She adjusted by learning to lip read and do sign language, getting help from family members and also benefited from living in a small, supportive community.
Her doctor first raised the idea of implants and she had procedures in 2004 and 2006.
“The first thing I heard was the blinker switch on a car, which I probably hadn’t heard for 20 years,” Mrs Mardling said.
During this time she was also upgrading her nursing qualifications through university courses and now works as a care manager at an aged care hostel and also farms her property.
“I couldn’t have done those things or been in the role I am today without hearing,” she said.
Ms Mardling urged anyone with concerns about their hearing to explore their options.
“If I can just help one other person, yes, because I just get up every day and say, when I’ve put my processors on and I’m hearing things, ‘Thank-you’,” she said.
- The six-minute film can be seen at doeslovelastforever.com