VA Western New York Healthcare System offers a full range of audiology and speech pathology services
Hearing loss is one of the top service-connected disabilities among Veterans.
The Department of Veterans Affairs offers comprehensive care services to Veterans with hearing loss, tinnitus, and balance. Hearing loss is generally caused by noise exposure, age, or both and one of the first symptoms that a person notices is difficulty distinguishing sounds or understanding speech.
Currently, there are over 1.7 million Veterans who receive compensation for tinnitus (or ringing in the ears) and over 1.1 million Veterans who receive compensation for hearing loss. Most of the hearing loss among Veterans is the result of noise exposure from gunfire, aircraft, tanks, and bombs. To address these challenge faced by our Veterans, the VA Western New York Health Care System (VAWNYHS) Audiology and Speech Pathology provides comprehensive healthcare services for hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, vestibular conditions, swallowing conditions and balance disorders.
The audiology clinic is a one stop shop for many audiology challenges effecting Veterans. "VAWNYHS Audiology offers a variety of comprehensive audiological services including hearing evaluations, tinnitus management, and cochlear implant evaluations and programming.’ said Julia Mascaro, VAWNYHS Supervisory Audiologist. “
In addition to audiological services, the VAWNYHS provides Speech Pathology for Veterans who have a wide range of communication and swallowing disorders. Speech-language pathology services include the early identification or screening, evaluation, and treatment for speech, swallowing, language, voice and cognitive- communication disorders. Services are provided based on applying the best available research evidence, using expert clinical judgment and considering the patient’s individual preferences and values.
Audiology and Speech Pathology services are available in a variety of locations, including the Buffalo and Batavia locations. Telehealth services are available at VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) locations in Dunkirk, Olean, Niagara Falls, and Jamestown. For eligible Veterans wearing hearing aids, the CBOC clinics offer a hearing aid walk-in clinic, Mon.-Fri. from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. to address any hearing aid problems.
For more information or to schedule an appointment, Veterans can contact the clinic at 716-862-6095.