Will you join us?
Recent BBC programmes like the drama Reunion or the documentary Old Hands, New Tricks highlight some of the barriers, prejudices and inequalities that we are up against.
At SignHealth, we’ve created services that are led by deaf people for deaf people in our language, British Sign Language (BSL). Domestic abuse support, psychological therapy, social care services and a children and young people team that understand deaf culture and serve our community across England.
But a few accessible services are not enough to improve the health of all deaf people. We need all NHS services to have deaf awareness and to meet the communication needs of patients. Will you join us?
Simon’s story
We asked Simon to share his perspective as a GP on NHS deaf awareness training and the barriers deaf patients experience with primary care.
Resources to download
Deaf health inequality
Deaf people experience poorer health outcomes due to a lack of health information and poor access to healthcare services. Our recent report Still Ignored published with RNID revealed only 56% of deaf people say that they leave their NHS appointment having understood the information that they were given about their health.
Costs to the NHS
In the 2014 Sick Of It report, it was estimated that “misdiagnosis and poor treatments are costing the NHS £30 million a year.”
Taking into account inflation over the past decade, as well as additional costs linked to social care and mental health, SignHealth estimates that the equivalent figure today would be in the region of £80-£100 million every year.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Will you join us?
