Contribution from Hear-It AISBL, ID number:

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1 Contribution from Hear-It AISBL, ID number: EUROPEAN COMMISSION Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities DG Social Protection and Integration Social and Demographic Analysis Brussels, D(2009) 8107 Consultation questionnaire In view of a possible designation of 2012 as European Year for Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity Specific Privacy Statement Received contributions, together with the identity of the contributor, will be published on the Internet, unless the contributor objects to publication of the personal data on the grounds that such publication would harm his or her legitimate interests. In this case the contribution may be published in anonymous form. Otherwise the contribution will not be published nor will, in principle, its content be taken into account. Should the contribution be published in anonymous form? Yes : No : X 1. IDENTITY OF THE RESPONDENT Please identify yourself and the organisation on behalf of which you are replying to this consultation Name Organisation (including a short description of its mission and membership) Hear-It AISBL Hear-it AISBL is an international non-profit and non-commercial organisation. The objective of Hear-it AISBL is to collect, process and circulate all and any up-todate scientific (sociological, legal, medical, public, policy related) and other relevant information including personal stories pertaining to hearing impairments and their human and socio-economic consequences. The activities include cooperation with national organisations, dialogue with public authorities and others regarding issues on hearing impairments, and publishing the world s largest web site on hearing and hearing loss. is published in English, German, Spanish and French. Hear-it AISBL deals with almost any issue related to hearing impairment, including: prevention of hearing loss

2 the consequences of hearing impairment for the individual and society advice and practical information for hearing-impaired people information and advice for relatives and colleagues factual information about hearing issues statistics about hearing loss Hear-it AISBL is comprised of IFHOH (The International Federation of the Hard Of Hearing), AEA (Association Européenne des Audioprothésistes), and individual members from the hearing aid industry, dispensers of hearing aids and others who share the objectives of Hear-it AISBL. Expertise (please precise the area) Hear-It writes, edits and publishes the world s largest website on hearing loss and the personal, and socio-economic consequences of hearing loss. The non-profit organisation has a solid and proven expertise in: Defining, supporting and coordinating scientific research on consequences of hearing loss Disseminating information and research results on hearing loss Planning and executing events and media contacts on the consequences of hearing loss Facilitating and coordinating cooperation among the stakeholders relating to hearing loss as for example the hard-of- hearing, researchers, the medical community, the industry and the retail sector. Contact details (notably address) hear-it AISBL Avenue Tervuren 35 B-1040 Brussels Belgium Att. Secretary General Kim Ruberg hear-it@hear-it.org Phone: THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES OF AGEING IN RELATION TO INTERGENERATIONAL SOLIDARITY Please explain briefly how your organisation perceives the challenges and opportunities in relation to intergenerational solidarity in a context of accelerating demographic ageing. Fluent communication between generations within the family and the workplace is essential to ensure a harmonious daily life, continued activity and prevent isolation-related illnesses like depression. Good hearing plays an essential part in this. Untreated hearing loss is one of the biggest threats to both an active life as elderly and for intergenerational solidarity. The reason is very simple. If you cannot hear properly, you tend to withdraw from human company and other people tend to ignore you. This will severely impair opportunities for an active life as elderly and make intergenerational solidarity even more difficult.

3 And this is not just a feeling or a claim. Hear-It has the facts to prove these observations: According to The European Health Report 2005 from The World Health Organisation (WHO) adult onset hearing loss is on the top 10 list of those diseases and conditions which have the largest impact on our lives in 47 out of 52 European countries. Sixteen percent of adult Europeans suffer from hearing loss great enough to adversely affect their daily life. In Europe, about 71 million adults aged 18 to 80 years have a hearing loss greater than 25 db, the definition of hearing impairment recognised by the World Health Organisation, WHO. In the EU alone, the number of people with hearing loss is more than 55 million. (Source: Evaluation of the Social and Economic Costs of Hearing Impairment, October 2006, by Bridget Shield for Hear-it AISBL) The Royal National Institute for the Deaf and Hard-of Hearing, RNID, in the UK made a large survey in 1999, where they asked a representative sample of the UK population on the social and psychological consequences of their hearing loss. The results are depressing: 71% of deaf and hard of hearing people feel isolated because of their hearing loss. 59% think other people perceive them as stupid 63% have been patronised because of their hearing impairment 47% have been made fun of because of their hearing impairment 47% have been ignored because of their hearing impairment 20% have been victims of abuse because of their hearing impairment 5% have been victims of violence because of their hearing impairment 39% avoided meeting new people 91% had difficulties coping in public places. (Source RNID 1999) This means that before a very large group of elderly can have a life with active ageing and there can be an intergenerational solidarity, many have to recognize their hearing loss and seek the right treatment. Without the ability to hear, a very large part of the elderly will have problems with leading an active life, participating in society and communicating between generations. But fortunately most hard-of hearing can be treated to allow them to pursue a life as an active elderly and allow for intergenerational solidarity. Research from Sergei Kochkin in the US clearly proves that good hearing aids and/or cochlear implants helps the hard-of-hearing to take on an active lifestyle and relate positively to their families. In a number of MarkeTrak studies, Kochkin has proved that: 56% of all hearing aid users report that the hearing aid has improved their relationships with their families. At the same time 66% of family members report that their family members use of hearing aids have improved family relationships. 50% of all hearing aid users report that the hearing aids have improved their positive feelings about themselves. 60% of family members report that their family members use of hearing aids have improved their positive feelings about themselves. 40% of all hearing aid users report that the hearing aids have improved their relations with children and grandchildren 52% of children and grandchildren report that their family members use of hearing aids have improved their inter-family relations 34% of all hearing aid users report that the hearing aids have improved their willingness to participate in group activities 44% of family members and work colleagues report that their family members or colleagues use of hearing aids have improved their willingness to participate in group activities

4 26% of all hearing aid users report that the hearing aids have improved their relations at work 43% of work colleagues report that colleagues use of hearing aids have improved their relations at work It s a very clear picture that hearing loss prevents the hard-of hearing from participating in a wide range of social interactions and activities. It is equally clear that treatment of the hearing impairment helps substantially to overcome these limitations, and it is important to note that family members and colleagues value this improved participation in social activities substantially higher than the hard-of-hearing themselves. These facts make the hard-of-hearing the number 1 group to address to make the European Year for Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity a success. And this observation is further underlined by the demography of hearing loss. The number 1 cause of hearing loss is ageing. Hearing loss is spreading at alarming rates in all age groups because of our increasingly noisy lifestyles, but aging is still the number one factor. Fully one quarter of the population over the age of 65 in most industrialized nations, and perhaps more in the rest of the world, suffer from hearing loss. Over the age of 75 years, half of us suffer from hearing loss. Over the age of 85, four out of every five of us have trouble hearing. As life expectancy rises the problem gets worse, because the age for onset of hearing loss does not rise, rather there is a tendency to see the onset of hearing loss in younger and younger age due to our noisy lifestyles Hearing loss is consequently a growing problem with age, and as we have just demonstrated, untreated hearing loss will make it impossible for a very large proportion of Europeans to take part in an active lifestyle or in intergenerational solidarity. This large proportion is 16% for the population as such, but when we come to the elderly population, more than one in three has a substantial hearing loss and the older they get, the more will become hard-of-hearing. If this large group of European elderly keep their hearing loss untreated, they will not be able to live a life as active elderly and they will not be part of intergenerational solidarity. This is a serious threat to ensuring active ageing and intergenerational solidarity. On the other hand, the opportunity is right at hand: Inform as many Europeans as possible about the downsides of hearing loss and urge them to get their family members or colleagues hearing loss treated. When that is done, they can participate fully in the European Year for Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity. Such a campaign will not only help the European Year for Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity. It will help all of Europe and all European countries: A recent Hear-It research report has documented that untreated hearing loss costs Europe 213 billion euros per year. In the EU the costs of unaided hearing impairment of all grades are 168 billion per year. This equals about 473 euros per year for each adult European. (Source: Evaluation of the Social and Economic Costs of Hearing Impairment, October 2006, by Bridget Shield for Hear-it AISBL) These are very large numbers, but they are based directly on the formula EU uses to asses all the comparative costs of all handicaps in illnesses in Europe and in European countries. And the cost will only rise in the years to come, as more and more hearing-impaired people are of working age. 1 in 6 baby boomers (ages 41-59), or 14.6 percent, have a hearing problem, and most people with hearing loss are still in the workforce (younger than 65). (Source: MarkeTrak VII) In Sweden a recent study has just found out that an increasing numbers of Swedes under the age of 65 years struggle with hearing problems. About 60 percent of all hearing impaired people in Sweden are of working age. The number of people younger than retirement age with hearing loss in Sweden has increased by 9 percent since (Source: The 2005 annual report from Hörselsskadades Riksförbund, the national Swedish association of hearing impaired people.) The Danish government has recently proved that hearing impaired people are leaving the job market at a much higher rate than their normal-hearing colleagues. In the hearing impaired group, 18 percent receive disability support. Among the general population, 7 percent receive disability support. In general, hearing impaired people have difficulty gaining a foothold in the job market. The unemployment rate among them is almost twice that of normal hearing.

5 (Source "When hearing fails: Impact of hearing loss on work, education and personal health." The Danish Institute for Social Research, 2003.) Among Swedes of working age with hearing impairment, 15.2 percent are on full or partial disability, compared with 7.9 percent of the general population of working age. (Source: Annual Report 2007, HRF) In the UK deaf and hearing impaired individuals are up to four times more likely to be unemployed than hearing people, according to a survey done by the organisation RNID. An American study conducted among hearing impaired Americans aged years indicated that: Almost one in four said their hearing loss is affecting their performance in the workplace One in four said hearing loss is affecting their earning potential. The areas of their work most affected are hearing and understanding phone calls and conversations with co-workers. 40 percent of the individuals who reported having a hearing loss said that it has affected their home life in a variety of ways, including difficulty in having conversations with loved ones. We conclude that an effort to inform on the consequences of hearing loss and the benefits of treating hearing loss will be the single most important activity to avoid a threat to active aging and intergenerational solidarity and the European Year for Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity and the biggest opportunity to promote its objectives. At the same time such an activity will contribute substantially to improve the economy of Europe and all European countries and as such contribute positively to the overall objective of the European Union. 3. POLICY MEASURES REQUIRED TO AVERT SUCH THREATS OR EXPLOIT THE OPPORTUNITIES AND HENCE PROMOTE INTERGENERATIONAL SOLIDARITY What policy measures would your organisation recommend to preserve or promote intergenerational solidarity? What obstacles need to be overcome to implement such policies; in particular, is there a lack of awareness and resistance to change? As can be seen in 2.(above) there is ample documentation to prove that untreated hearing loss is a serious obstacle to an active life as elderly. Similar strong evidence proves that an untreated hearing loss is a strong obstacle to intergenerational solidarity. It is a frightening fact that most Europeans attach a strong stigma to hearing loss and hearing aids. People who are hard-of-hearing are old, stupid and out of touch is the depressing voice of the stigma. This prevents tens of thousands of Europeans from recognising their hearing loss and doing something about it. This stigma is therefore a very strong obstacle for a life as an active elderly and for intergenerational solidarity. You can not be an active elderly if you don t relate to other people. And a person with an untreated hearing loss does not relate much to other people. In fact, that person consciously and unconsciously avoids contact with other people. This is a well documented fact. The same applies to intergenerational solidarity. For such solidarity to take place, it is a prerequisite that the generations communicate. More than 90% of intergenerational communication is oral and this only works, if both generations can hear what the other says. If the hearing ability is lost, the hearing impaired will retire within her-or himself and the hearing part (typically the younger) will withdraw and conclude that the other generation does not want interaction. Countless studies prove that when an elderly family member starts using a hearing aid, he or she finds more than 50% improvement in family relations because of the hearing aid and the communicative benefits resulting from the hearing aid. Although this figure is impressive, the family members generally report improvement in family relations around 20 percent point higher than the hard-of hearing, meaning around 70% improvement. These are facts too little known and even less reacted to. If they could become better known and people would start reacting to them, it would be a major breakthrough for both a life as an active elderly and for intergenerational solidarity. The way to do this is to adopt policies to communicate these facts and get the message out through as many communication channels as possible.

6 Although a lot of facts and documentation already exists, it would also be very good if more facts (preferably on a country-by-country basis) could be generated. It is much easier for a population or a nation to relate to findings from their own country than general European findings or findings from other countries. 4. ROLE OF THE EU IN PROMOTING THE RIGHT POLICY RESPONSES Is there a specific role for the EU in relation to intergenerational solidarity? What measures could be taken at the level of the EU in addition to the existing EU policies? In particular, is a European Year an appropriate instrument? Adopt policies to communicate these facts and get the message out through as many communication channels as possible. Promote research into topics which will contribute to make Europeans and especially European elderly aware of the negative consequences of hearing loss, and research into the benefits of treating the hearing loss. It could furthermore be helped if the EU would facilitate legislation to ensure European standards on assistive listening technologies. For example to ensure that assistive listening technologies like telecoils (or rather successor technologies typically in the FM-band) loop systems and the like use the same frequencies and standards throughout Europe to ensure that hard-of-hearing can cross borders with their hearing aids and assistive listening technologies and be sure the technology works in concert halls and museums throughout Europe. In the same line of thinking, EU could assist in promoting the idea that it is a European right for the more than 16% of Europeans who are hard-of-hearing to be able actively to take part in cultural events by obliging the organizers of such events to make assistive listening technologies available. The EU could also look into a Charter for the elderly, where EU adapts a policy that stipulates that European elderly have a right to get treated for a specified list of ageing related weaknesses. This could be coupled with a general Disabilities Act for Europe.

7 5. PICS AND ACTIVITIES FOR A EUROPEAN YEAR Given the limited resources available for a European Year, what topics and types of intervention should it focus on? How could it achieve the greatest possible mobilisation of stakeholders at all levels (EU, national, regional, local, company, sector) and thus maximise the impact of the European Year? In general Hear-It has extensive experience in creating broad events, where the issue of recognising your hearing loss and acting on it is an important element in a wider communication on active age and intergenerational solidarity. We therefore suggest to look closely at other events on these topics and find possible synergies. It is our experience that communication on these topics must take its direction from the target group and not from us, who have a message to deliver. And generally, the elderly and those interested in intergenerational solidarity do not look upon themselves as either hard-of-hearing, football fans, opera goers, mobility handicapped or any other singular feature, but see themselves as individual persons with a number of negative and positive features. And they could be interested in all or some of them. For that reason it is often a good idea to make broader events for this target group, which to our mind also emphasises the theme of active age and intergenerational solidarity. This is not to say that we do not have our own ideas for topics and activities. For several years we have participated in a Week of Sound in France and in 2009 it was accompanied by an offer to all Frenchmen to have their hearing checked by a professional. This was a remarkable success and we would strongly support a pan-european Week of Sound or European hearing week where we probably would be able to convince the Association Européenne des Audioprothésistes to have their members offer free hearing screenings to all Europeans. This could be combined with a hearing screening of all MEPs and maybe all employees of the European Union. Such a screening will get a lot of media attention and it will bring the message home to important politicians and European decision makers. The MEP and EU screening would furthermore have the advantage of being a sample screening of all Europeans and it would be very interesting to note if there are any national or regional differences in self-assessment of hearing loss and actual measured hearing loss. As part of the European hearing week we could also offer to fit European MEP s with hearing plugs and/or active hearing aids with counter noise which would effectively make them hard-of-hearing while wearing them. They would then each participate in a general session and one or more committee meetings, and afterwards be available for interviews from journalists to be interviewed on their experience as hard-of-hearing and what conclusions they will draw on that experience on the active aging and intergenerational solidarity seen (or maybe rather heard) in the light of hearing loss. We would also suggest seminars on the economy of hearing loss. We have strong documentation that proves it is a good investment for any society to invest in treating hearing loss. We have also documentation to prove that countries which invest the most in their hard-of-hearing population have a higher GDP than those which invest less. This could be a very interesting topic for seminars as well as further research.

8 6. YOUR ORGANISATION'S CONTRIBUTION TO A EUROPEAN YEAR How could your organisation contribute to the success of a European Year? What activities could it develop? Hear-It AISBL would take on the task of coordinating and running a European Week of Age-related Hearing Loss or European Week of Hearing. Hear-It AISBL would attempt to find and facilitate Hearing Ambassadors throughout Europe. Hear-It AISBL would try to make our partners offer free hearing tests throughout Europe during the European Week of Hearing. Hear-It AISBL could create the technology necessary to simulate what age-related hearing loss could mean to you: Simulation could be tested at first during a European Parliament meeting or Health and Consumer Committee or other committee meetings? 7. WHAT SUPPORT WOULD YOUR ORGANISATION REQUIRE TO PLAY A MAJOR PART IN A EUROPEAN YEAR? Please explain what support your organisation would require from public authorities to make a significant contribution to the success of a European Year. - Assistance with defining and financing relevant research - Assistance with a pan-european awareness campaign - Assistance with the organisation of events (see 6) in the European Parliament, Committee meetings - Partial funding for some of the above