6 minute read
Hearing the Call
Dr. Kelley Linton
WORDS Dwain Hebda images courtesy Center for Hearing
In deciding what medical field to enter, Dr. Kelley Linton weighed several factors including the nature of the work matching her skillset, the level of need in the community and the potential to serve populations who need care the most. She found audiology checked all the boxes.
“I was in a pre-med program, and I really liked math and science, honestly. Audiology is dealing with frequencies and decibels,” she says. “It is the most common disability that babies are born with, every single person who lives long enough will have hearing loss and we live in such a noisy world, there’s just a lot of hearing loss out there. There’s a tremendous need.”
Over the years, Kelley has met that need through Center for Hearing Ltd., the practice she founded in Fort Smith, improving the lives of countless patients. Their diagnostic hearing tests include cutting-edge technology and the latest techniques to ensure a quality outcome for each patient. In addition, the practice includes various related services such as fitting, repairing and maintaining hearing aids, ear wax removal and helping patients deal with tinnitus.
She has also expanded her personal and medical mission by serving as a volunteer audiologist for the Good Samaritan Clinic in Fort Smith and as part of medical mission teams that travel to Honduras and/or Peru every year to evaluate and treat those in need.
“Personally, I believe God gives us talents and they are designed for us to make a living and raise godly children,” she says. “But I also think the intent is for us to give of our talents. Certainly, my talent is helping people hear better and so I need to give my talent for those who can receive it.”
Last year, Kelley found yet another way to live out her professional and personal mission becoming part of a national nonprofit called Hearing the Call, an Indiana-based organization dedicated to serving patients who could not otherwise afford audiological care.
“Hearing the Call is a 501(c) organization,” she says. “With all the hearing aids we purchase for people, we designate part of our profit to this organization. Then we will hold Hearing the Call events in our area, so local residents can apply to have hearing services. If they qualify, they can receive our services for very little cost.”
Kelley has long recognized the need for such outreach in the community, a need made more acute by the pandemic conditions of the past eighteen months. The issue of providing such help to people is problematic, considering the lack of hearing specialists, especially outside of major population centers, compared to other medical specialties.
Hearing in Noise Specialists Trace Cash, AuD, Kelley Linton, AuD, Lori Boyd, AuD “Hearing is one of those things you take for granted until you lose it,” she says. “We didn’t see a drop in patients last year, in fact, we might have gotten busier last year because of masks. People with hearing impairments need to see the lips moving, they get so much information by visual cues. Even if you think you don’t lip-read, you get at least forty percent of what’s said by visual cues and lip reading."
“The masks have made people struggle and we had a lot of very worried patients see us. The world was just crazy; in order to talk to their doctor about what was happening, they were doing tele visits. Well, maybe on a tele visit they could see the doctor's lips and maybe they couldn’t. So, in that way, COVID turned the hearing-impaired world upside down and they were desperate. We definitely did not slow down; we took all the necessary precautions and we stayed here for them.”
Finding care is only part of the issue for many patients, affording treatment is another matter altogether. As AARP reported in 2018, researchers from the University of Michigan found older Americans with hearing loss were struggling to afford their hearing aids. The high cost of the devices meant twice as many seniors with incomes in the top twenty-fifth percentile used the devices compared to those in the bottom income brackets.
“Hearing loss is very prevalent; there are a tremendous number of people who have hearing loss and are unable to afford help or receive hearing aids or hearing services,” Kelley
Center for Hearing Staff
says. “We originally were part of an organization called Hear Now where we fit hearing aids on local people at no charge. That was a great program we were part of for many years.”
When that program ended in 2020 Kelley was eager to find another way to serve those in need. She says Hearing the Call was not only a suitable replacement, it brought with it a unique twist that multiplies the good the organization can do.
“Something that’s different with Hearing the Call is, they work on the premise of giving people a hand up not a handout and that's a very big factor in their belief,” she says. “People are required to give volunteer hours back to the local community. We get a commitment from the person receiving the free services that they will give back, and then they’ll pay it forward in some way either by volunteering or by doing ten random acts of kindness.”
Center for Hearing has yet to organize its first Hearing the Call event, by which individuals of all ages experiencing hearing problems can find out more about the help that’s available and begin the process of applying for services. Kelley predicts the first event will be held after the first of the year. Until then, she directs people to the Hearing the Call website to learn more.
“We will manage an event for Arkansas, but the organization also travels to other countries and do events there as well,” Kelley says. “Hearing the Call goes all over South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ecuador, Guatemala, lots of other places.
“The World Health Organization just put out a statement earlier this year that by 2050, one-in-four people are going to have hearing loss to the degree that needs treatment. That affects their communication which affects their livelihood.”
Kelley says besides being personally fulfilled by serving others, community service has also enriched her staff of eleven, bringing more purpose to their everyday job duties.
“People want to get a satisfaction out of what they do and on a day-to-day basis we change patients’ lives,” Kelley says. “We are a small business, and I don’t offer some of the perks that working at a big medical clinic might offer, but they stay here because of what we do and how much it means to our patients. They see the people who maybe can't afford coverage or are trying desperately to get help.
“It’s very fulfilling and we consider it one of the perks of working here, to feel really good about what you’re doing. Everybody loves that.”
Center for Hearing Ltd. 479.785.3277 | centerforhearing.net Hearing the Call hearingthecall.org
