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Originally Posted by Byrdie714
There is a popular deaf nursing home outside of Columbus, Ohio that has a lot of deaf senior citizens.
Anyway I have to agree that the criteria for diagnosing dementia needs to be adhered to one's culture and language as I have meet many deaf senior citizens who were labelled, "dementia" patients--when they have no memory problems.
The sad part is that the hearing individuals that work there convinces themselves that the residents do suffer from dementia when in fact they don't.
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That particular place has been expanded to include not just a nursing home, but an independent seniors only apartment building. Its a wonderful place. A great community within a community. And the criteria for working with the deaf patients in the full nursing care faciltiy has been revised so that they are requiring knowlege of the culture. St. Vincent's has done the same. ADAMH has begun to recognize the implications of cultural considerations, but I agree with you that we need to keep pushing because we have not reached equity as of yet.
One of the things that I think is important is the use of an individual on staff that is not just fluent in ASL and knowlgeable in cultural considerations, but an actual Deaf communication specialist.