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Abstract
Objective: Hearing impairment is known to have various effects upon both the person with hearing impairment (PHI) and their communication partners (CPs). In addition, CPs are reported to play an important role in making the decision to seek a consultation and the acceptance of intervention by the PHI. The overall aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of the CP in the audiological enablement/rehabilitation of the PHI keeping clinical practice in focus. Method: A literature review was conducted using a number of resources including electronic databases, books and websites. Results: An overview of the literature was presented in the following sections: 1) Factors influencing the audiological enablement/rehabilitation of the PHI; 2) Effect of the PHI's hearing impairment on their CPs; 3) CPs’ influence on their PHI's audiological enablement/rehabilitation; 4) Positive experiences reported by CPs of the PHI; 5) Models to represent CPs within the social network context of the PHI; and 6) CP involvement in the audiological enablement/rehabilitation. This paper also identifies gaps in the literature and provides recommendations for further research. Conclusion: It is clear that involvement of the CP in the audiological enablement/rehabilitation can result in mutual advantages for both the PHI and their CPs.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the Ida Institute for letting us use the Goal Sharing for Partners figures. Some parts of the manuscript from the section ‘Positive experiences reported by communication partners of the PHI’ were presented at an Ida Institute seminar during November 2009 by Dafydd Stephens.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.