Access to health and care for d/Deaf and hard of hearing people
Download (PDF 5.44 MB)Summary of report content
This research forms a part of Healthwatch Suffolk’s contribution to ‘Your Care, Your Way’ (YCYW), a national Healthwatch campaign about receiving accessible information and support from NHS and social care services. There were a total of 147 responses to the research gathered in various ways, including an online survey (81) and experiences shared directly with the Healthwatch Suffolk team through engagement (66).
The report looks at:
- How people described their hearing problems
- What support they needed when accessing health and social care services
- Whether services met their communication needs.
- Whether people had to ask for their communication needs to be met when accessing services
- The impact of not being provided with healthcare information in a format they couldn’t understand or access
- Awareness of their rights under the Accessible Information Standard
- Which services people had experience of, and whether those were positive or negative
The report contains seven recommendations about staff training, improving communications, records, mask wearing, alerting people, providing choice and accessible information.