Miss-Delectable
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Belfast Telegraph
The Royal Hospital in Belfast has launched a multi-lingual admission pack in response to the growing numbers of patients who do not speak English.
More than 1,000 patients admitted to the hospital last year asked for an interpreter, and the numbers are expected to increase with the rapid influx of foreign workers to the province.
This is a logical and welcome response to the growing language diversity in this country.
But I am in two minds about including deaf people in the multi-lingual package as hearing loss affects us in so many different ways and there is no hard and fast answer to the problems we experience when seeking medical help.
The Interpreters' Unit of the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) at Wilton House, Belfast, organises a growing band of skilled interpreters working across the province.
They accompany profoundly deaf patients to hospital and provide sign language support when meeting doctors and nurses. The service is so popular that some bookings have to be made a month or more in advance.
And it's not confined to hospitals. Interpreters are on hand for visits to the optician and dentist; you can also get help for an interview with your lawyer or to discuss your child's progress at school; you can call on an interpreter for a court appearance, buying a house, enrolling on a college course or even for attending church or the theatre.
Over the past few years many deaf people in this category have stopped calling themselves 'deaf' and have changed their name to the 'sign language community'. They take pride in their special status and the fellowship they enjoy with one another. English, they say, is their second language and sign is their first and natural language.
But in spite of all the publicity and activity, the RNID itself admits that this section of the deaf community is very small and vastly outnumbered by the hard of hearing, those deafened by disease or accident and the large number of older people in our population who have become reliant on the new, highly efficient hearing aids.
Some time ago I spent a week in Musgrave Park Hospital having a knee replacement operation.
A ward orderly with whom I had become friendly told me that communication with deaf patients, especially those who had lost their hearing in later life, was a growing problem and they had found that neither sign language nor the written word alone provided the perfect solution.
Older patients, he told me, often have poor eyesight along with their diminishing hearing, and writing and reading are difficult. Many possess malfunctioning or ill-fitting hearing aids, and for some reason find the hospital literature difficult to read. It would probably help if the multi-lingual packs mentioned above were printed in a larger font size - 14 point as a minimum.
James Strachan, the RNID chair, was asked recently what single thing would most improve the quality of his life.
In spite of a severe hearing loss James is on the court of directors of the Bank of England, the boards of Legal and General House and a visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics.
He replied: "A new pair of ears, but failing that, technology that would enable me to communicate in all situations.
"Bill Gates still dreams of a device the size of your palm that would translate speech to text perfectly in all situations through a voice recognition programme. It would also translate from one language to another. I want one for Christmas." Me too!
The Royal Hospital in Belfast has launched a multi-lingual admission pack in response to the growing numbers of patients who do not speak English.
More than 1,000 patients admitted to the hospital last year asked for an interpreter, and the numbers are expected to increase with the rapid influx of foreign workers to the province.
This is a logical and welcome response to the growing language diversity in this country.
But I am in two minds about including deaf people in the multi-lingual package as hearing loss affects us in so many different ways and there is no hard and fast answer to the problems we experience when seeking medical help.
The Interpreters' Unit of the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) at Wilton House, Belfast, organises a growing band of skilled interpreters working across the province.
They accompany profoundly deaf patients to hospital and provide sign language support when meeting doctors and nurses. The service is so popular that some bookings have to be made a month or more in advance.
And it's not confined to hospitals. Interpreters are on hand for visits to the optician and dentist; you can also get help for an interview with your lawyer or to discuss your child's progress at school; you can call on an interpreter for a court appearance, buying a house, enrolling on a college course or even for attending church or the theatre.
Over the past few years many deaf people in this category have stopped calling themselves 'deaf' and have changed their name to the 'sign language community'. They take pride in their special status and the fellowship they enjoy with one another. English, they say, is their second language and sign is their first and natural language.
But in spite of all the publicity and activity, the RNID itself admits that this section of the deaf community is very small and vastly outnumbered by the hard of hearing, those deafened by disease or accident and the large number of older people in our population who have become reliant on the new, highly efficient hearing aids.
Some time ago I spent a week in Musgrave Park Hospital having a knee replacement operation.
A ward orderly with whom I had become friendly told me that communication with deaf patients, especially those who had lost their hearing in later life, was a growing problem and they had found that neither sign language nor the written word alone provided the perfect solution.
Older patients, he told me, often have poor eyesight along with their diminishing hearing, and writing and reading are difficult. Many possess malfunctioning or ill-fitting hearing aids, and for some reason find the hospital literature difficult to read. It would probably help if the multi-lingual packs mentioned above were printed in a larger font size - 14 point as a minimum.
James Strachan, the RNID chair, was asked recently what single thing would most improve the quality of his life.
In spite of a severe hearing loss James is on the court of directors of the Bank of England, the boards of Legal and General House and a visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics.
He replied: "A new pair of ears, but failing that, technology that would enable me to communicate in all situations.
"Bill Gates still dreams of a device the size of your palm that would translate speech to text perfectly in all situations through a voice recognition programme. It would also translate from one language to another. I want one for Christmas." Me too!
