BSL:UPTAKE » Blog Archive » BSL Blog 4 – Better Health for Deaf People

BSL Blog 4 – Better Health for Deaf People

Better Health for Deaf People

“I want better health”. Most of us could say that at some point in our lives. Deaf people are basically no different. But one of the big differences at the moment is that Deaf people do not have the same access to information, advice and services that most hearing people enjoy.

We’ve known that for a long time. Deaf people have known it all our lives. So why do we need to keep proving it all the time? Why don’t those responsible for providing health information, advice and services already know it?

A recent item we put in the BSL:UPTAKE Health Library was a link to an online survey launched in 2009 called just that – ‘I Want Better Health’.

From Deaf people’s point of view, the excellent thing about this survey is that the website is bilingual, with access in BSL as well as English. The first thing the ‘I Want Better Health’ survey website says is:

“We know Deaf people are more likely to get ill than hearing people. We are told plenty of horror stories. Deaf people having the wrong leg cut off or given the wrong medication.”

Really? If all this is happening, why isn’t it on the front pages of the newspapers and leading the TV news programmes? Maybe it’s partly because, just as Deaf people don’t have access to information about what’s going on in society – including health advice and services – the hearing world has no idea what life is like for Deaf people. So in that sense, the survey is vital and we would encourage all Deaf people to take part in it. As the survey says:

“We can then compare the results from Deaf people with results from hearing people.”

Well, we know what the results will show, don’t we?!

One thing where I disagree with the survey is when it says:

“Unfortunately, we do not have scientific ‘evidence’. Without this evidence it is hard to get health services to change.”

It certainly is hard to get health services to improve what they provide for Deaf people. But it is not true that there is no scientific evidence. Some of it is already there and you can find it through the BSL:UPTAKE Health Library.

For example last year, the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre at University College London published a report on ‘Deaf and hard-of-hearing people’s access to primary health care services in North East Essex’.

That’s relevant evidence that could be used by other health care professionals and policy makers anywhere. We don’t need separate reports in every primary health care area in Scotland, England and Wales before some general lessons can be learned – and applied.

In 2002, Janet Ubido of Liverpool Public Health Observatory at the University of Liverpool and others published a report, ’Inequalities in access to healthcare faced by women who are deaf’.

This too was based on a survey. Among other things it showed that:

“…fewer than one in 10 deaf women said that they usually fully understand what the doctor says to them when they visit the doctor on their own. There are many other difficulties faced by women who are deaf, leading to inequalities when they are compared with hearing people. Almost half the respondents said that they would be more likely to use health services if help and/or services for deaf women were available.”

This ‘amazing’ information has been publicly available for the past 8 years. So why haven’t the health services and policy makers acted on it?

There are countless other examples of research that have proved time and again how Deaf people suffer from lack of access to healthcare, information and advice – and which suggest some of the simple steps that could be taken to improve things. Many of them can be found in the BSL:UPTAKE Health Library. They are not difficult to find – for those who wish to look.

We hope that as many Deaf people as possible will respond to the ‘I Want Better Health’ survey. When the results are published, we’ll give you a link to them in our Health Library. We just hope that this time, health professionals, policy makers and politicians in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK will act on them – quickly. Deaf people have waited far too long for better health – better health information – better health advice – and better health services.