1 Health Needs Assessment of the Deaf and partially deaf community in Wakefield District Stephanie Gibson Public Health Commissioning Manager Jamil Zaman Health Deafinitions November 2010

2 Aims of workshop Provide background information on: –The rationale for carrying out the HNA –Aims of the HNA, method and target group –The Deaf community vs hearing community Describe the process for carrying out the field work and present the findings of the HNA How the recommendations are being taken forward

3 Rationale Local gaps in knowledge in relation to health needs and experiences of health services Access and health needs often overlooked in the design of services due to: - Significant communication barriers within mainstream settings - Difficulties in challenging DDA Results in: invisibility & lack of power

4 Aims of the survey Understand the health and wellbeing needs of the Deaf and partially deaf community Find out their experiences of using health services Identify the gaps in the provision of primary and secondary health care to the Deaf Make recommendations to inform service developments

5 Methods Questionnaire Design, format, piloting Case studies

6 The Questionnaire Health services used e.g. making appointments Being understood Knowledge of health services Attitudes of staff Making services better Perceptions of health and wellbeing e.g. physical or emotional problems Levels of motivation

7 Participants Gender The survey was well balanced between genders with 25 males and 25 females.

8 Participants Age Ranges It was also fairly balanced between the ages; with 13 people (26%)who were years old, 14 people (28%) aged 26-35, 8 people (16%) between 36 and 49 years old, and 15 people (30%) over 49.

9 People registered as deaf or hard of hearing (2007 ) England Y& H28,59013% (as a% of England) N Yorkshire3,65012% as a % of Y & H) Barnsley6002.0% Bradford1,9156.6% Calderdale7202.5% Doncaster1,6655.8% Kirklees1,5155.2% Leeds11,25539% Rotherham1,2604.4% Sheffield1,4254.9% Wakefield1,0654.0%

10 The Deaf community Have you ever worked with deaf people before? – as work colleague or as a service-user? How have you communicated? Do you see the deaf community as a linguistic group or as a disability group?

11 Life Experiences Hearing Learning to speak, read and learn from conversations around you Recognise ‘common’ symptoms of illnesses, Read more information or talk with others about it Deaf If not ‘spoken’ to directly, miss out on all information ‘Never heard’ about these common symptoms Can’t read/understand written information and limited social group to discuss it

12 “DEAF” Can be used to include all people with any hearing loss at any time in their lives We chose to use ‘Deaf and Partially Deaf’ to mean those who were pre-lingually deaf (not deafened through age) Most of those interviewed use British Sign Language

13 Conducting the Survey Most deaf people quite happy to be involved Many appreciated the opportunity to ‘get it off their chest’ and told us about personal experiences They wouldn’t know other ways to complain They would not have been able to read, understand and answer the questionnaire independently

14 Conducting the Survey...2 Most people interviewed took 2 hours! Time to translate the questions into BSL and, often, give some examples We could have easily ‘influenced’ their answers but tried to give them the information without bias (e.g. Especially older people say they are ‘fine’ or ‘ok’ to everything; but later would give us negative personal experiences).

15 Learning Points / Overcome Be aware of the (often) low reading level and knowledge gaps among the deaf community Don’t assume an understanding because they are ‘nodding’ This would not have been as effective using spoken interviews through a BSL Interpreter.

16 How to reach the Deaf Community We are deaf, BSL-users (and lip-readers) ourselves = direct communication We already have links with the Deaf Society and deaf people there Aware of different cultures within deaf community as well (ethnic minorities) And aware of different ages and how that affected their answers.

17 Summary Deaf people are often ‘overlooked’ in any other public survey/consultation Using Direct communication (BSL to BSL) was very important and beneficial The deaf service-users were pleased to have a chance to give their views and experiences.

18 Findings - Access to health services

19 Findings - Making GP appointments

20 Findings - Being called for consultation

21 Findings- Use of BSL interpreters

22 Information about health services

23 Findings- Health information 88% stated that information on how to be healthy would make the biggest difference to their health 82% stated that information on dealing with stress was most important for making a difference to their health. 40% felt that access to MH services was very important

24 Recommendations Raise awareness of BSL translation services Involvement of the Deaf community in service planning development Training for health service providers on deaf awareness and basic BSL

25 Recommendations…2 An increase in the use of technology in GP practices and hospitals such as Sign Translate Equality Impact Assessments to reflect the needs of the Deaf and partially deaf community. Increase in provision of accessible information eg picture-based

26 Actions being taken forward Deaf community service user forum Review and trial of existing health information (Health Trainers) Promoting healthy choices initiatives Widening of membership of Sensory Impairment subgroup Audit of primary care providers’ processes and provision of health information