World Hearing Day 2025: Changing mindsets, empowering to make ear, hearing care reality for all!

World Hearing Day 2025 (March 3) shines a spotlight on the importance of ear and hearing care.

Building on last year’s focus on changing mindsets around this crucial aspect of health, this year’s theme for the celebration is ‘Changing mindsets: Empower yourself to make ear and hearing care a reality for all!’

This theme aims to inspire people to make proactive changes in their lives to protect their hearing and prevent hearing loss.

The days of ‘wait and see’ and passive health care are over.

It’s time to consider the impact of loud sounds and other harmful ear practices and how these can cause long-term irreversible damage over time. 

This can easily be avoided if simple, preventive steps can be adopted into our daily lifestyle, thereby ensuring that hearing is preserved for the future while supporting those already living with hearing loss. 

Key

A key goal of the World Hearing Day campaign is to foster a collective change in behaviour when it comes to hearing care.

Many individuals are unaware of the long-term risks posed by exposure to excessive noise levels in everyday life.

Exposure to noise levels above certain thresholds can result in noise-induced hearing loss.

Constantly putting things in your ears is also very harmful.

Knowing the impact of these behaviours or actions and committing to doing better can help ensure better and safer ears for years to come. 

Regular hearing checks are a vital aspect of ear care as early detection of hearing loss enables more effective management and prevention.

Consulting Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) professionals when issues arise or wax builds up ensures safe management options, leading to better outcomes. 

Encouraging individuals to seek professional advice and use hearing devices when necessary is a key part of the initiative.

These simple yet powerful steps can help prevent further damage and improve overall quality of life. 

Supporting

Outside of taking individual responsibility for our ear care, we are also encouraged to support those who already face hearing challenges.

In a country like Ghana, where people often ridicule what they don't understand, we are urged to foster an inclusive environment for those with hearing loss by offering empathy and support.

This can include actions such as learning sign language, reducing crowding to improve communication access, and making our institutions more communication-friendly for diverse communicators.

Empowerment, societal change

The theme of empowerment goes beyond personal action—it calls us to not only acquire knowledge about hearing and ear care for ourselves but also to share it with our friends and families, drive group initiatives targeting communities and environments and inspire collective efforts towards this goal.

This can help shift societal attitudes towards hearing and health care, highlighting the potential for individuals to drive change within their communities.

Call

This year's celebration reminds us that hearing health is a crucial aspect of our overall well-being.

It is no longer acceptable to remain unaware. Discover the proper ways to care for your ears and hearing.

Take action - do something for yourself and your loved ones.

Whether it’s protecting our ears from loud sounds, getting regular hearing tests, or supporting those with hearing challenges, we all have the power to make a difference.

This celebration invites everyone to take action today to ensure healthy ears and hearing for themselves and those around them ‒ because when we empower ourselves, we empower others as well. 

The writers are speech/language therapists/clinical coordinators.

University of Ghana.