Hearing rehabilitation in a psychosocial framework.

This paper is primarily concerned with handicap, which emphasises the psychosocial consequence of hearing loss, its development and a framework for its alleviation. The development of handicap is considered, taking as a starting point the World Health Organization Definitions of disablements and their application to audiology by Stephens and Hétu (1991). This is extended in the light of recent work on the role of significant others and of positive experiences arising from the hearing loss. This approach is then incorporated into an update of the Goldstein/Stephens (1981) management model of audiological rehabilitation which provides a framework applicable in any sociomedical situation.