Deaf Health Talk

Hello,

My name is Abbas and I am from Remark! based in London. I am seeking for some people to give us bad experiences of using access with banks.

You are deaf and cannot hear on the phone, how can we get access to banks urgently?

If you have used an interpreter to phone the bank up for you, and they got declined to talk for you?

Were you being ignored by the banks?

Did the banks not improve much better access for you, deaf people, to use banks easily, without calling?

How can we get in touch with the banks if we are all deaf, cannot hear or speak on the phone?

Please give us your bad experiences, we are looking to share the stories around, into documentaries for Remark film production.

It would be very helpful if you guys are keen to give us the bad experiences, we all might improve much better facilities with banks.

If you are interested, please email me; abbas.aliraza@hotmail.co.uk or sam.calder@remark.uk.com.

Many thanks!

Hello

Like Geri I get a lot of people on this site i to have problems with my doctor if my lip speaker can not make it to the appointment with me i have to go on my own they will not write any thing down and also they do not look at me when they are talking to me. They to look at the computer or look at my notes so now try and book an appointment when my lipreader is free. I know I shouldn’t but I don’t feel comfortable.

I am a 31 year old male, I was about 4 years old when they found out i was deaf because my speach didnt develope well, although I had good hearing as a child it was told to me It would get worse throughout my life, I am now classed as profundly deaf, I struggle very baddly with everyday life comunications, I cant sign but do lipread, bu even that is really hard and can make me very tired over long times. I have never been aware of any help I can recive when it comes to meetings, interview or even on nhs ie doctors ,dentest or hospital appointments. My partner has to come with me to all appointments i go to so she can try and relay or even answer questions for me, shes not had any experiances with deaf people before me, so it causes us a lot of stress as well. it makes me feel worthless when I cant understand what a doctor is saying to me, it makes me feel really angry when even after making doctors aware im deaf they still talk to the wall or the computer. I,ve got to the point where i avoid going out unless it totaly needed.
I feel all deaf people across the whole spectrum needs to be made aware of any help out there, which would improve there quility of life and also people in genral should be made more aware of deafness, I have been compaired to people with deslicx, been told they thought i was a person who suffers with down sindroms because of my speech. none of this is correct. I’m just rambbling now but i am a very angry person when it comes to my deafness and lack of awareness both from help i can recive and from companies, doctors even goverment officals.

Our local Deaf club we have over 100 members and about 30 to 40 members regular use the club and when I look at these regular regarding their health, they do have some problem with their health in different way, about 6 of them got diabetic, 2 with colon, more than 6 got some sort of heart problem; high blood pressure or cholesterol, some arthritis and 3 got mental health. So it seem that we Deaf have missed out on information and education regarding looking after our health. We do have a great Interpreter services but it seem that is not enough. It mean we deaf people have a higher per cent of problem with our health and it needed to be solved

My older sister died April 1st 2009, she had type I diabetes ad a kid and thru her adult life. She died at 50, but there were very tough times ad her health failed. Imagine being deaf and the going blind too. I want to improve my family site to assist others. Comments/feedback is welcomed.

i saw the see hear on 10th november about access doctor hospital i live northamptonshire our local doctor has no interpeter access or vidoe on laptop i always ask for one of dr who can sign lauguage very lttle i do understand her when need emergerery dr they send me other dr very hard to understand i have to bring my 19 age daughter who can sign as well i think they need video laptop our doctor in rushden northamtpnshire very hard for me really and kettering gerenal hosptial nothing laptop i always bring my husband or kids to help me .. jean livsey

Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Rinkoo Barpaga and I work for the BBC, ‘See Hear’ team as a Researcher.

We are looking for Deaf people who have had any bad experiences with the NHS?
e.g., Communication difficulties between Deaf patient and Doctors, Nurses or even the Receptionist? Lack of Interpreters being provided or Deaf patient feeling misinformed or confused due to the language barriers?

Do you know any people who would be happy to feedback their experiences to us? Or if you know of or have any stories but don’t wont to disclose personal details than a reconstruction of the story can be made?

All stories will be kept confidential.

Please feel free to ask me anything.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Rinkoo Barpaga

I am hard of hearing and can’t us the telephone and need a office job badly, help any one.

Occupational Health is a service which is used by lots of organisations. It is used to check that someone is fit for a particular job or it might be used to see if someone is ready to come back to work after an accident or illness. It should not be seen as a threat by deaf people.

Occupational Health can also look at the risks in the workplace and advise employers about how they organise their workplace so it’s safe.

I hope this helps.

Male deaf went for a hospital appt re his water work problem- a LADY interpreter was booked! Red faces all round!

Specialist Doctor refused to write things down- his reason was ” I havent got time to write things down” – at that point I wrote “ok but I will report you” he changed his tune and start to write notes

Please could you tell me what is Occupation Health relating employment?
Is Occupation Helath working for deaf people? Will Occupation Health professional tell a deaf woman’s employer that she is not fit for her job? Why?
If the deaf person is referred to Occupation Health, does it mean it is a risk for her to lose her job at the end.

Sorry, that should read pals@heartofengland.nhs.uk

Linked to my comment 1st Feb. The door and phone are still there. As usual they are deaf to my complaint! named and shamed award to solihull hospital.

Last week – I went to hospital in Birmingham. Even I had to inform them I am deaf and the importance of interpreter to be there as this is important appointment for me.

Interpreter wasn’t booked. The nurse asked me if I did bring family/friend? I told the nurse it is their responsibility and I do get fed up calling and calling them to make sure I have interpreter even they have “DEAF” on my record but still miss that!

However cos the interpreter was not there and I do not want to delay the appointment because I was in pain and I want to solve this so I had to resort to old fashioned pen and paper.

After 20 mins scribbling and I may need major surgery and this is why this is important to ensure I get the full information. When I walk out – I wasn’t sure and would have ask lots more questions but I didn’t want to write.

I will blog this to let you know what happens next.

Really it would be nice if I just had to mention my name and they booked interpreter automatically. Surely that is possible in nowaday. Then again it is NHS for you.

I am going to hospital today so should be interesting to see as last month I made complaint to one lady as in order to get in the building – you have to use the phone, state your name and get in. I hate this moment feeling helpless and having to ask other people to help me. Will it improved this time???

I’m deaf, NOT dumb. Think Equal Opps!! Treat deaf people the same but DON’T treat us like we are dumb. we are not, we just find it difficult!! It would be better if people have some awarness about deaf people and adjust things so deaf people will be able to communicate. it won’t kill you, you know!!

Hi, I mayself am hearing. I’m a third year student nurse and am currently learning BSL 101. It is very basic but hopefully I’ll be able to help out more on the wards than some (stupid) nurses that think that shouting helps.
I hope that I’ll get to use my BSL effectively and make hospital stays that bit more comfortable.

Yes, Rachel, experiences expressed on the blog are very much the norm.
We have to fight every way to get the service we should be entitled to (i.e. just to get the equivalent service everyone else gets).

Our recent experiences at our Health Centre are a good example where we have to point staff in the right direction and get them to amend the error of their ways!

You may be aware that some surgeries will not accept telephone calls for appointments until 8am on the day.

Our own surgery has now introduced a new procedure where one has to make appointments for the MORNINg after 8am and appointments for the AFTERNOON at 2pm.

We had to find a CSW to call to make an afternoon/evening appointment, but were unable to get through for over 40minutes, when we eventually got through, all the afternoon appointments were fully booked!

We then went and made a complaint to the Practice Manager pointing out that it is difficult enough for Deaf people having to make telephone appointments once a day, never mind twice. As you can imagine, the Practice Manager had not considered this side of things but was surprised the receptionist hadn’t thought about how to assist us with our difficulty when we mentioned that calling would be difficult and we would need to ask someone to call. So she has now put on our records that because we are deaf we can make appointments for any time at any time – so it is worth flagging things up with your Practice Manager.

She also asked if we would be willing to provide feedback on our experiences at a future date for them to learn from their mistakes and improve things.

I was really interested in everyone’s views. I was wondering if experiences here were the norm.

Signature want to improve public services for deaf service users. We want to hear about your experiences, good or bad, of:

· Doctor’s surgeries and hospitals;

· Local councils;

· Courts and the police;

· Colleges and schools.

We will then publish a set of principles, to help public services provide a better service for deaf people. To fill in the questionnaire at http://www.signature.org.uk/servicesconsultation.

One PLUS point: the hospital has a PALS feedback form in its website. I complained about the bad experience with the nurse, and the PALS staff were fantastic. They responded ASAP, and alerted the ward.
Later one of the PALS staff offered to be a contact point if we had problems. That took a huge burden off my shoulders, for my husband’s sake.
But I always wondered, what if Deaf people with less literacy skills cope in that situation? Roll on PALS with videophone technology.
P

I do have nice GP – even reception can do basic sign language and GP always come out of their room to ask me and others too as made it more friendly as good for everyone.

It can be pain sometimes when you in need of emergency as this is the time you need help and interpreter. I hate going to accident and emergency and I would put off as long as possible before I am in pain. Because doctor, nurse and reception do not have the same thing what I like at GP. They seem to have no deaf awareness, no signing, no clue of how to communication with me. It is worse when I bought with kids. They would have doctor and 2 nurses just to trying communication with me and using my kids to “tell me” when I got angry about this, they think I am trouble maker the way I express my feeling. They treat me like I am stupid and made me felt I shouldn’t look after my kids. In the end, one of nurse on top of her voice in front of everyone in reception telling me ‘That i have to be very careful next time you naughty boy” I feel sorry for her with her dinosaur attitude eh!

I know this is very common theme all over UK. You would have thought they have been trained to dealt with various of different people.

I can think of a lot of situations ..

a young Mum whose doctor used her 9 year old son to explain that she had cervical cancer

A man of 92 who had had the same dr all his adult life, numerous operations that he had no idea what the ops were for but “ask my doctor, he knows all about it”

A gp who had a patient of 30 years standing, never used interpreters because they did not need one “she understands me perfectly” – patient response was “hes a nice man but he cant understand me, prescribed medication for diarrhoea when I had period problems” This lady was diabetic, had chronic arthritis, eye problems due to uncontrolled diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and heart problems. She had been injecting the same number of units of insulin for 19 years because it had never been explained to her using an interpreter, that she could vary the amount according to her blood sugar levels. Consequently her diabetes was never well controlled. When visiting the dr with her mother the dr would ask her mother how she was and not speak to her direct. And her mother would answer without reference to her daughter! This was a 40 year old woman whose mother was speaking for her. Perhaps not surprisingly, she died aged 52.

Another young mum had a baby born with the valves in its heart connected wrongly. The baby was rushed to Great Ormond Street..with..the grandmother because the mother was Deaf and would not be able to communicate. The mother was left in hospital wondering what was going on. Throughout the early years when there was a lot of surgical intervention and check ups etc grandma went to all the appointments. Mum couldnt tell you what was happening, because she didnt know. It was always “ask my mother, she knows”.

And my own experience where a consultant asked the interpreter to leave the room because “we dont need all these people in a consultation!”

One lady in hospital asked to use the fax machine to send a message to staff because there were problems with communication and she wanted support, and was refused permission to send the fax.

I have a fantastic GP practice who have accepted Deaf awareness training for the receptionists which makes life much easier, but still there are problems getting through to make appointments and I always call into the surtgery to make appointments face to face. In this day and age with technology it would surely be simple enough to set up a mobile number that could be used to text for appointments.

About three years ago when I first saw the leaflet about SignTranslate, I did a copy and gave to my GP. Nothing happened till last year when I saw the advertisement on SignTranslate that I did a copy and post to the Manager of my surgery. Reply was that they have the Loop System and I reponsed that it wasn’t any good to myself that I need a Sign Langauge interpreter. I didn’t get a response to the SignTranslate till December 2008 with the remarks on cost but nothing to say whether they will try it out or not. I contacted SignTranslate for help as felt getting nowhere with my surgery. I wrote again and the response was that they have passed to PCT for funding, yet they are missing out on trying it for a year since last summer. I did point out that it was the best way of getting a signer quicker as sometimes you cannot get one on the day of your appointment.
What annoys me about the surgery is how did they know whether to have the Loop System as patients are not asked what their needs are, such as sending out survey letter. I don’t know if other deaf patients use the same surgery as myself.
The only thing I have found of improvement for my needs since I have used the surgery for many years is that there is a board announcement system in the waiting room and lets you know when it’s your turn to see your GP. Before the receptionist would call your name out, a system I didn’t like that whenever I had a appointment I would tell the receptionist not to call me but to come and tell me which was a help.