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Harriet Oppenheimer, Chief Executive of RNID, on Advancing Hearing Health, Breaking Stigma, and Innovating Care

(This interview took place in Dec 2024 and aired in Jan 2025)


Harriet Oppenheimer, Chief Executive of RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf People), delves into the organisation’s work in support of the 18 million individuals in the UK who are deaf, have hearing loss, or experience tinnitus.


She underscores the pervasive nature of hearing-related issues, noting that if one does not personally face such challenges, they undoubtedly know someone who does. With this universal relevance as a foundation, RNID has committed to fostering inclusion and improving lives through a strategic framework focused on three interconnected levels: changing society, transforming systems, and enhancing individual lives.


RNID, a heritage organisation with over a century of impact, remains steadfast in its purpose while adapting to the demands of a modern, digital world. Harriet explains how their work in "changing society" encompasses awareness campaigns to promote hearing protection and foster a culture of consideration for those with hearing loss. These efforts aim to break down barriers in social interactions and normalise the use of hearing aids and support systems.


At the individual level, RNID provides direct support through online resources, a contact centre, and in-person services such as drop-in centres and community talks. These touch points enable RNID to stay connected to its communities and gather insights to shape its initiatives further. Harriet articulates the importance of early intervention in hearing loss, pointing out that untreated hearing impairment can exacerbate social isolation, depression, and even increase the risk of dementia. RNID’s free online hearing check empowers people to address their hearing health proactively.


Looking to the future, Harriet discusses the organisation’s initiative to reimagine hearing healthcare in the UK. Despite significant technological and societal advancements, the process of receiving hearing care has remained largely unchanged for two decades. RNID is calling for genuine innovation — user centred, tech-enabled solutions that prioritise accessibility and personalisation. This includes ideas such as home-based hearing checks, app-based diagnostics, and devices tailored to individual needs.


Harriet also touches on groundbreaking research into the link between hearing loss and dementia, a relatively nascent field with the potential to redefine approaches to dementia prevention and diagnosis. She emphasises that advancing this research requires collaboration and funding and invites stakeholders from various sectors to join RNID in this critical work.


RNID’s work is a call to action for society to recognise the importance of hearing health, break the stigma surrounding hearing aids, and embrace the potential of innovation to transform lives.


About Harriet Oppenheimer


Harriet Oppenheimer is the Chief Executive of RNID, the national charity for the 18 million people in the UK who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus. She leads RNID’s strategy to make society and employment more inclusive, and to improve health hearing through improved awareness and access to services and treatments.


Prior to joining RNID Harriet was a partner at PA Consulting, where she worked across government, health and life sciences sectors, helping organisations shape and deliver strategic change. Her early career was in charities and the NHS.


Harriet is Vice-Chair of the Board of the Refugee Council.


Transcript of the interview between Alberto Lidji and Harriet Oppenheimer (the transcript has been auto-generated)


Alberto: Hello, and welcome to the Do One Better Podcast in Philanthropy, Sustainability, and Social Entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Alberto Lidji from London. Please click that subscribe button and follow us if you're not already doing so and do leave us a rating and a review.


It helps others to find the show as well. Today, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome onto the show Harriet Oppenheimer, Chief Executive of RNID. That's the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, also known as the National Hearing Loss Charity.


They've been around for over 100 years, and today we're going to be looking at the work they do in addressing the challenges posed by hearing loss, tinnitus, encouraging people to check and protect their hearing, and reimagining hearing health. We'll also touch a little bit on the research, the treatments, and what the road ahead looks like. Today's episode will be really fascinating for anyone who knows someone who has hearing loss, who's experiencing hearing loss themselves, or who maybe has hearing loss and doesn't even know it.


It's about 18 million people in the UK experiencing hearing loss and tinnitus right now. And so, this topic is highly relevant to a lot of folks. Today's conversation is not only going to give us insight into the work of the RNID, but also you can consider it a little bit of a public service announcement, because you'll really be able to get better versed in the challenges of hearing loss, tinnitus and what can be done to address them.


So, you're in for a fascinating conversation with Harriet. And without further ado, Harriet, a big heartfelt welcome onto the Do One Better podcast today.


Harriet: Thank you very much. It's great to be here.


Alberto: Well, it's an absolute pleasure to see you again and to welcome you onto the show. You're the chief executive of RNID, a long form for the Royal National Institute for Deaf People or the National Hearing Loss Charity, as you could say. You're based here in the UK.


Tell us a little bit about RNID. What's it all about?


Harriet: Well, as you say, we are the national charity for 18 million people in the UK who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus. It's a really big number. It's a universal issue.


So, if you yourself don't have hearing loss and are not deaf, you will certainly know someone who is, whether it's your friends, your relatives, your family, your neighbours, your loved ones or your colleagues at work. So, it's an issue that touches everyone's life. And our mission is to make life more inclusive for people.


We do it in three ways. So, we change society, we change the system, and we change lives one by one. I can tell you a bit more about each of those.


Alberto: Before we do that, you mentioned hearing loss, but you also mentioned tinnitus. And it's a word perhaps not everybody's familiar with.


Harriet: Absolutely. So RNID covers the range of people from people who, as I say, have hearing loss. So that's from mild to moderate to severe hearing loss, people who are profoundly deaf, some of whom are sign language users.


And we also are there to support people with tinnitus, which is when people hear noises that are not caused by an outside source. It's actually very common. About one in seven adults have tinnitus either all the time or regularly.


The thing about tinnitus is that lots of people are told that there's nothing that you can do about it. Actually, there's a lot that you can who is, whether it's your friends, your relatives, your family, your neighbours, your loved ones or your colleagues at work. So, it's an issue that touches everyone's life. And our mission is to make life more inclusive for people.


So that's rnid.org.uk.


For example, one of the best treatments is, if somebody has hearing loss as well as tinnitus, which does often happen, is hearing aids. It can help both. But there's also sound therapies.


There are talking therapies. For a very small number of people, tinnitus can become very distressing, leading, for example, to loss of sleep. And for those people, there's also help on our website, and they should get in touch. But for most people, people learn to live well with tinnitus.


Alberto: Tell us how you operate. So how long have you been around? Where do you work? How do you help all of these millions of individuals suffering from hearing loss or tinnitus?


Harriet: So, I'll tell you a little bit about both of those. So RNID, we're a real heritage organization. We've been around for nearly 115 years.


Throughout that time, obviously, we've delivered a huge amount of different things within the UK. But these days, we've got a very focused strategy that's fit for today's world and tomorrow's world. As I say, focused around these three levels of change.


So, when I talk about changing society, I'm talking about campaigns to encourage people to check and protect their hearing. And I'm talking about campaigns to encourage people to be aware of their behaviour and consideration towards other people who are deaf or have hearing loss. Because it's those kind of interactions that really make a massive difference to millions.


So those are the sorts of things I mean when I talk about changing society. When I talk about changing the system, that could be about the research that's available into future treatments and cures. It could be about working with employers to make workplaces more inclusive.


It could be about working with industry to help organisations design products and services and information that's much more accessible to our communities. And it could be about working to reimagine the future of hearing health care in the UK. So, we talk about these as changing the system because they're big systematic changes that are going to take lots of players to make those kind of really big differences that are going to make a huge difference to people's lives.


But we also change lives one by one, which is really important to us. So, we provide online information and guidance. We have a contact centre that you can get in touch with, do a myriad of ways for people who want additional support.


And we also run drop-in centres and information talks in communities across the UK for people who want to know more, who want a bit more help with their hearing aids. And those kind of ways of being really close to people who are deaf and have hearing loss and tinnitus help us be really connected with our communities and help us build a real evidence base and insight about what makes a difference to their lives.


Alberto: What's the direction of travel? And I imagine it's positive, but what's the direction of travel since this hundred years in terms of the technology, our understanding, the horizon of future treatments and ways of addressing the issue? How are things looking?


What should folks who are suffering from hearing loss or tinnitus expect to unfold in the coming years?


Harriet: Well, there's a lot I could say about that. I'll talk about two things. I'll talk about technology, and I'll talk about biomedical research.


So, I see technology as a massive enabler for our communities because the kind of technology that is around these days, whether that's about captioning, whether it's about all sorts of ways of making communications more accessible for people, just can be a massive game changer when it's used well. And, in fact, I mentioned some of the work that we do with industry to help people design their products around making themselves more accessible for our communities. That's quite often quite a lot to do with technology.


Technology used well is a massive enabler for greater inclusion. Of course, technology not used well actually creates additional barriers. So, it's a game changer, but you've got to lean into it.


And the second thing which I think is absolutely core for our future is around biomedical research. So currently, there are no cures for hearing loss that are available. There are great things that you can use.


There are hearing aids which make a massive difference to people's lives. And there are cochlear implants which make a massive difference to people's lives. But there are no treatments and cures which actually reverse hearing loss.


But we fund biomedical research into the treatments and cures for the future. And we also work a lot with the life sciences industry to raise the profile of this kind of work. And we see a bright future for hearing loss research. And we believe in a world where those kind of treatments are available in the future.


Alberto: You used the words check and protect. How aware are people in everyday life that... I mean, you do hear, sure, on your iPhone, it might say, look, here's the settings that you can't go above this certain volume to protect your hearing.


And so, we do hear all the time. Don't listen to the radio or the music too loudly. It'll be bad for your hearing.


But I think most people sort of, or many people discount that. It's like, yeah, that's something my parents said, but how aware are people these days in everyday life that actually you do have to protect your hearing and you do need to check it because perhaps you're suffering from hearing loss and you don't know about it. You just didn't realize.


It's gradually encroached, as it were. Tell us a little bit about that.


Harriet: So, both of those are really great questions. So, you're right that in terms of hearing protection, there are quite a lot of behavioural nudges already beginning to be built into things. As you say, if you're listening to something on ear buds, your phone will probably tell you if you've got it up too high.


But without doubt, there's more work to do to raise people's awareness of the importance of protecting your hearing and actually really valuing your hearing. We've got some research going on at the moment about different attitudes to protecting your hearing at different ages. And it’s work that we're really committed to doing, and there's going to be a lot more about that this coming year for us.


So that is really important, and it's important at different ages. There are lots of stereotypes, which are true as well, about young people and loud noise and concerts and festivals. Nobody wants people to not enjoy themselves, but there are simple things that you can do to protect your hearing in loud environments.


It's about having the information about what is a loud environment and what are the right things to do. But it's something that affects people at all ages, and therefore even if you're not in a very traditionally noisy environment, there's things that you should do to think about protecting your hearing. You also asked about checking your hearing, and that's a really interesting and important area, because there are a lot of people who have hearing loss, who don't know that they've got hearing loss, and therefore aren't getting the help that they need.


And actually, it's really easy to check your hearing. So, for example, RNID has got a free, easy hearing check on our website. It just takes three minutes, and it can tell you whether you need to go and get further support.


And the reason why that's important is twofold. One is that the earlier in your hearing loss journey that you get help, the better the results are. So, the better you are able to accommodate the support that you get, and the better you'll be able to hear.


And the second reason why it's really important is that unaddressed hearing loss can lead to a number of other things that are even more problematic. So, it can lead to greater isolation and depression. And actually, unaddressed hearing loss is the largest modifiable risk factor for dementia.


So, what that means is, of all of the things that you could actually do something about to make it more likely that you don't get dementia, treating any hearing loss that you may have is a really important one. So, for all of those reasons, we campaign a lot for people to check their hearing. It's a really easy thing to do.


And people should be checking their hearing as much a part of their routine as it is to check your eyes or to check your teeth. Once you've checked your hearing, you get the help you need.


Alberto: You mentioned age and different stages in one's life. Putting aside what loud noises one may or may not have been exposed to, either as going to rock concerts or working on a construction site, but let's say that that wasn't the factor. What should a normal human being expect as they're progressing through their teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, and beyond?


Is it analogous to one's eyesight where you're thirties, forties, you probably need reading glasses or most people do. Is there some sort of loss, mild as it might be, that should be expected as one ages naturally?


Harriet: So there certainly is age-acquired hearing loss. So current estimates are that over half of the population aged 55 or more have some degree of hearing loss, and 80% of people aged over 70 will have some form of hearing loss. That said, one in eight people of working age have hearing loss.


So, whilst age-acquired hearing loss is a significant component of all of it, it is really something that we should all at all ages be alert to, not least because there's a lot that you can do about it.


Now, just because somebody might have some mild hearing loss, for instance, it doesn't necessarily mean that they need a hearing aid. Am I correct?


That's true at the mild end of hearing loss, but it's also the case that hearing aids can make a massive difference when you do need them. So, they are a really good thing because they help you hear better. And modern hearing aids, which are free on the NHS, are high quality and make, as I say, a massive difference to people.


And then if you do need hearing aids, the earlier in your hearing loss journey that you start using them and getting the benefit from them, the better the results will be.


Alberto: So, you've given us a really great overview of the layout, as it were, of where you're operating and your context. What are you really excited about? As we're embarking on 2025 and beyond, what are you really excited about in terms of what you're doing, initiatives, the work?


Harriet: So, one of the things I'd love to talk to you about a bit is what we are calling re-imagining hearing health. So, despite the growing demand, and we've just talked about the sheer volume of people who have got some form of hearing loss, and you've mentioned the age-related component of that. And of course, we know that we are an aging population.


So, despite all of that growing demand and continued challenges, the actual process of receiving hearing healthcare in the UK has remained largely unchanged for literally 20 years since the early 2000s. That's when digital hearing aids were first fully rolled out on the NHS. But if you just think back that far, that was about the time that YouTube was being launched, that Google Maps was first coming on the market.


Most phones then didn't have a camera. Zoom wasn't invented then. So, it's extraordinary how much has changed in the world, how much technology has enabled, how much our understanding of how to design services around real people's needs has progressed.


And yet, actually, the process of receiving hearing health care hasn't really changed much in those two decades. So, we have begun an open conversation, we're beginning an open conversation about how to reimagine hearing health for the future. And we want this to be really wide and broad.


So, we want to talk to health practitioners and health policy makers. We want to talk to industry, we want to talk to tech innovators, we want to talk to mainstream tech providers. We want to talk to people in the hearing loss world and people in parallel, interesting, different worlds as well, to help us reimagine the future of hearing health and create a really vibrant picture for the future.


Because I think what's really exciting about this is there is an opportunity for genuine innovation. Sometimes when people talk about innovation, they will talk about something which is actually important, but it's about joining up things that already exist, or it's about spending a bit more money on something that is underfunded. I really think that we're talking about genuine transformation, genuine innovation.


As I say, there's a lot to do with technology.


That could be a whole range of things. It could mean talking about a much greater shift to community-based services. For example, hearing checks at home with automatic referrals, or using your phone as a scanning device if you do need an ear scan for whatever reason.


A much greater degree of personalization of your hearing aid so that it gets attuned to your daily life and what's happening for you. So, we really believe that some of what people do today in all walks of life, which is to design services that are very much user-centred around real people and their real lives, will make a massive difference in hearing loss. Whether that's because people need things designed around their lives because they are busy professionals and they've got places to go and things to do, whether people have got family commitments that mean that they've got places to be that they really can't shift very much, whether we're talking about people who are living in remote rural areas and don't necessarily have easy access to hospital provision.


We think there's a massive opportunity to totally reinvent the future of hearing health in a way that isn't necessarily just about ploughing more money in. And there's another thing that I'm really excited about that I'd love to tell you about, which is we mentioned earlier, well, I mentioned earlier about the connection between hearing loss and dementia. So, we know that there is a link, but we don't yet understand enough about it.


Alberto: So, what's the causality? Does one affect the other or is it the other way around or are they both caused by something else? And we're only going to know more about that by researching it.


Harriet: So RNID is already funding research into a better understanding about the links between hearing loss and dementia. But we're excited about it because, as I've said, hearing loss is such a universal issue, but actually dementia is also very growing in people's awareness and dementia clearly affects very many people. And a better understanding of the link between hearing loss and dementia has the potential to completely change the approach to dementia prevention, overcome barriers to diagnosis, just improve our understanding all round.


So, we're excited about that. It feels a very important area for us to be involved in. We're already funding research in that area.


It is generally an emerging research field. So, there's a real potential for funders who are interested in this space to get in on the ground floor. So, we're very keen to attract more funding into this area because I think it has the potential to massively improve older age.


Alberto: Absolutely. Absolutely. And thanks for highlighting that. A lot of people who listen to this show are in the philanthropy space running foundations or philanthropists themselves.


So, it's always interesting to find different opportunities, especially thematically speaking around this area. And how's that conversation going so far? This re-imagining hearing health.


Harriet: So, we started this a year or two back by creating a report about UK audiology services called In Their Own Words. So, it was very much based on what our communities tell us, the real experiences of people who are deaf and have hearing loss, about how they experience audiology services, what works, what doesn't work, the barriers they see, what they would like to see change in the future. And on the back of that, we've now begun a blog series that we host on RNID's website.


So that's rnid.org.uk, where we are encouraging and inviting people from different sectors, different perspectives, different technical views, to come and share their inspiration about what might be their views of the future of hearing health, what it could offer in the UK. And we think it's great to be able to crowdsource, if you like, inspiration from a range of different people to help us build a really compelling view for the future.


Alberto: A little bit earlier, you mentioned some of the stakeholders. You mentioned the corporate space as well. If memory serves me right, last time I saw an update from Apple and their earbuds, there was something about having a clinical grade assessment tool or something along those lines where you can start relying on the Apple earbuds in order to at least give you an indication whether you are experiencing some hearing loss. Anything on that front?


Harriet: So that's absolutely right. So, Apple's new AirPods, which have got hearing aid functionality, which is recognized as clinical grade in other countries, such as the US, for example, it could be really game-changing in terms of shifting both the public perception of the technology around hearing loss, because there is stigma about wearing hearing aids, and actually, you know, Apple's cool. So, we can see that that could be game-changing about public perception.


And as a result of that, it could really encourage people to get help earlier in their hearing loss journey. It's not yet available in the UK, because our regulations don't allow for over-the-counter hearing aids without an audiology assessment, but it's a really interesting space that we're keeping close to.


Alberto: Yeah, and making it cool and reducing that stigma. That's a big piece. That's a big piece. Putting all the tech and research on the side, right? Sometimes human beings being human beings, if it's not cool, you know, it's a challenge.


Harriet: I totally agree. But there's also a really important awareness raising thing in there, because actually getting people to talk more about hearing health and to make it much more acceptable to be able to talk about needing some help to hear better. Because hearing aids do make a massive difference to people's lives.


And as I say, the hearing aids that are available on the NHS in this country are high quality. So even just the process of talking about it more is and raising the profile is a really important one.


Alberto: The one place, if you think about the market, distribution channels, raising awareness, the one place I don't think I've ever seen a notice about protecting your hearing loss, but I always thought there should be is at the gym. You go to the gym, you're on the treadmill or whatever, and people just have the thing at full blast because they're already going full out on that treadmill, and you need all the burst of energy that you can, and you're going to just, a lot of people just put the music at full max. And some people, you're going to have it at full max volume because it's such a noisy space already at the treadmill.


And I always thought that's a space, that's a place where they should put a little bit more of emphasis, not just on cardiovascular health or any of these things, but also on the hearing, because, you know, so I would wager that most folks on that treadmill who have ear pods have them a little bit louder than they should.


Harriett: I think that's a really well observed thing. And there are plenty of noisy environments which are noisier than is healthy for your ears. So, part of what we are planning to be doing in the coming year is making a much bigger noise, coincidentally, about encouraging people to know what's a healthy volume to listen at and when to protect your hearing and how to protect your hearing.


And also, to make that something that people are much more comfortable to talk about and much more comfortable to accept.


Alberto: Now, let me ask you, in terms of your own personal journey, professional trajectory, how did you end up where you are today?


Harriet: Well, that's a great question. I did actually start off in the not-for-profit world a very long time ago when I started my career. And I've also spent time in the NHS.


I've actually spent most of my career in industry as a management consultant. And I worked across loads of sectors, loads of organizations. And it's a real privilege.


I worked with amazing clients. I learned from some incredibly smart people. And often people only invite management consultants in when they've got a kind of once-in-a-generation challenge to really get their teeth into.


So, as I say, it felt like a real privilege to be able to see so much of the world. But then I made a very deliberate decision to switch my career back to the not-for-profit world four years ago. It felt like a great opportunity to use the perspective and skills that I've gathered to make a really positive impact, like a really purpose-led impact.


And I'm a big believer in business, having spent most of my life in business, and I absolutely, businesses can be purpose-led too. I just think there's a difference in the not-for-profit world. There isn't a profit motive, so at their best, charities have got a particular freedom and legitimacy.


It doesn't come automatically, so I think the legitimacy comes from being a well-run charity, when you've got a strong evidence base, you've got good insights about your cause and the issues that matter to people, much as I've been describing in this conversation. And that kind of insight that can make a real game-changing difference to people. And I think the freedom, there is freedom also in the charity sector.


I mean, only if you're fundable, obviously, and funding is always a challenge. But when you've got it, you're not constrained by public process, and you're not constrained by the politics of the day, which can mean that you work on some of the really big intractable problems of our time. And you're able to do so, as I say, with a real kind of intentionality.


And if you combine that with the kind of legitimacy that you get from real insight and evidence, I think it can confer real trust. And I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to be a leader in this world.


Alberto: I'd love to ask you for a key takeaway before you run off today. What's that one thing that you'd love for the audience to keep in mind after they finished listening to today's episode?


Harriet: So, I am a big believer in optimism, and I'm a big believer in pragmatism. And I think they go well together. I am by nature glass half full. And I love connecting with people from all walks of life to find practical ways to fill that glass fuller. I feel like there's always opportunities when you look for them.


Alberto: Excellent. Harriet, thank you so much for joining me and joining us on the Do One Better podcast today. Wonderful seeing you again.


Thanks for taking the time for all the insight. You've given us a really good overview of the state of affairs. Very much appreciated. And I look forward to hosting you back on the show a little bit down the line.


Harriet: It's been great. Thank you so much.


Alberto: Perfect. And that's a wrap. Thanks very much for tuning in.


You've been listening to a great chat with Harriet Oppenheimer, Chief Executive of RNID, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People. For information about this conversation and more than 300 other interviews and case studies with remarkable thought leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship, just visit our website at lidji.org. Please click that subscribe button and follow us if you're not already doing so and do leave us a rating and a review.



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