Stoke Deaf Community Report

Healthwatch Stoke on Trent met with representatives of the deaf community to discuss current issues and concerns, in particular service. These comments were recorded and collated into a list of key points, nine case studies were also shared and are contained within the report. The study was carried out in mid 2015 and was revised at the request of Stoke on Trent CCG.

The report identified a number of key issues in the area including: DHH patients tend not to complain, DHH patients cannot read high level english and communication needs to be plain, services don't know when a DHH patient is accessing them, accessibility of health services for deaf patients due to the reliance of telephone calls to make an appointment, lack of coordination in hospitals when arranging for communication support, no identification for patients in hospitals for deaf patients, staff training in city health providers, cuts to funding which have caused lip reading courses to be cancelled, issues of social care where a DHH patient is residing, major issues with counselling services for DHH patients.

A summary of the case studies showed that: staff may be unsure of DHH patients needs, BSL interpreters incorrectly booked and staff unaware of how to do it, BSL interpreters being inflexible with their time or not booked for long enough, assumptions that family members and carers will act as interpreters, breakdowns in communication causing patients to feel isolated, intercoms are not accessible, staff choosing to communicate with family members and carers over the patient, use of technologies such as SMS or email could help, case studies suggest patients would like to have interpreters with them for more of the journey, staff misunderstanding patient as grumpy instead of deaf as hadn't read his notes, cost can be a barrier to accessing better interpreters.

Seven recommendations were made in the report,

1. Engage with DHH to co-produce services.

2. Investigate the further use of technology to further support inclusion;

-Alternatives to phone access for GP appointments could be investigated

3. Look again at staff training to understand the needs of DHH.

4. DHH could be more easily identifiable on wards in hospital.

5. Work could be done to understand the experiences of DHH in care homes.

6. Work could be done to understand accessibility of counselling service support

for DHH in care homes.

7. Particular effort could be made to empower DHH patients to participate in their

own care whilst in hospital.