A Year of Meetings and Findings

One year ago, I became the ambassador of Lobe clinics and of hearing health. This marked the beginning of a great and beautiful adventure! Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to visit the province of Quebec and meet you, whether it be during Speech and Hearing Month activities or through my conference L’audition, une priorité. These moments will certainly remain forever etched in my memory.

For many years now, I’ve had the chance to maintain a special relationship with you. You’ve always been there for me, even in the toughest times. That’s why I’m so happy to go meet you! I always feel welcomed. I’m thankful that so many of you respond to my invitations. Thank you for saving a place for me in your life.

When you come to see my conferences and tell me about yourself, your loved ones or your experiences, I’m extremely touched and it’s always a pleasure for me to listen to you and support you.

This year, I’ve had the chance to meet people who have chosen to take care of their hearing and seen the benefits it can have on their lives. I’ve also met others who have supported relatives through this process. These meetings are always the highlight of my day. They allow me to realize that people are becoming more aware of the importance of taking care of their hearing health.

I’m still aware that my mission to raise awareness is far from being over. It’s true that people have become more concerned about their overall health. Many people pay close attention to what they eat, how much time they spend doing physical activity, and how much stress they have daily. However, they don’t yet pay the same amount of attention to their hearing health.

That’s why I plan to do more outreach in the coming year. Among other things, I would like to invite parents to schedule a hearing assessment for their children before school begins. I also want to make workers more aware of the importance of protecting their hearing. Some people are fortunate enough to work in environments with appropriate occupational health and safety supervision. However, let’s not forget that many people working in smaller environments don’t have access to as many resources. They’re not always aware of all the ways that noise may affect their hearing. Simply put, I want to change that.

Of course, I also intend to maintain my involvement with people of all ages. When we have all our senses, we tend to take them for granted. We don’t always realize their importance. It’s hard to think about losing our hearing, but it’s still something we need to consider. We must know how to recognize the signs of hearing loss so that we can act quickly and reduce its impact, no matter how old we are.

Even though I’ve been involved in the hearing field for almost 30 years, I’m still learning every day.

In the past year, I’ve met a lot of hearing health professionals who have taught me a lot. Their extensive knowledge of the field of hearing has allowed me to discover so many things. I must say that one of the things that surprised me the most is the impact that uncorrected hearing loss may have on the brain. Did you know that the decline in cognitive abilities is faster and the risk of dementia is higher in hearing-impaired people who don’t wear hearing aids? 1 The brain is receiving less auditory information, so its ability to recognize and understand speech decreases.

When it comes to hearing loss, we often discuss the ways it affects communication with our loved ones. However, we don’t necessarily think about the cognitive aspects that directly affect us. It’s important to be aware of this, and that’s why I want to talk more about it.

The last year has been extremely educational personally, but also intellectually. When becoming the ambassador of Lobe clinics and of hearing health and creating my conference L’audition, une priorité, I had one goal in mind: to encourage people to take care of their hearing health. I had no idea that I would learn so much and meet so many wonderful people in the process!

I’m very happy with my path so far and wish to continue my journey with you for years to come!

All my love,