My first brush with deafness was with my grandfather, who had Ménière's disease. My grandmother became quite depressed as the years passed, as he had been a naval officer and she had so been looking forward to a life of being sociable, with her husband able to accompany her after all those years of him being away. Of course he hated going out anywhere at all, as he was unable to hear anything being said, even with a hearing aid, if there was any background noise at all. I spent a lot of time with him, and he was more than happy to talk as long as we were somewhere quiet, but his deafness embarrassed him, as did the lack of balance that accompanied it, as he was accused more than once of being drunk. I felt desperately sorry for both of them. My grandmother was quite bitter at times.
More recently was the problem caused by a great-aunt's deafness. She and her sister had retired to Cornwall, and all the family used to take turns to go to stay nearby to check up on them as they aged, and make sure they were ok. One died, and soon after the other went very deaf. As others have mentioned, vast amounts of money were spent on hearing aids over the years, thousands. All of us dreaded receiving phone calls, because there would a problem to solve but she couldn't hear our replies, even with various devices attached to the phone and special speakers. We all roundly cursed their decision to retire so far from the family, as there would ensue a quick call round everyone to see who was free to fly/get a train/drive down, all of which cost a fortune and took up a lot of time for all of us, much as we loved her. Ironically, many times the problem proved to be a lack of ability to convey her precise problems to the hearing-aid providers!
I think that many communication problems could be solved with compulsory lip-reading or signing lessons from a very young age. However, I was amazed to discover that there isn't better NHS funding for hearing aids. Sad as I am for couples who aren't able to have children, (and not at all sad for women who just want bigger or smaller breasts) I think of all the people who could be treated with that money instead. Teeth, eyes and ears in good working order enhance our lives dramatically.