Shortage of sign language experts cuts the deaf from medical care
A sign language expert at work: There is a concern that communication between deaf patients and medical personnel is less than adequate. PHOTO | FILE
Ever wondered how deaf patients communicate with health personnel whenever they seek medical care? Hospitals are, no doubt, not an easy place for many people with hearing impairment.
The success in medical procedures heavily hinges on accurate diagnosis of conditions and diseases, requiring patients and health personnel to have a deep communication to achieve this goal.
No guess work, no secrets, no half-truths. Perhaps this level of required openness explains why patient-doctor consultations are held behind closed doors and the discussion is confidential.
However, it now emerges that there are gaps, where, because of disability, some sections of the society in Kenya have not had fruitful discussions with their doctors or nurses.
Dealing with deaf patients poses a serious challenge of communication to the medics attending to them, our interviews with people in the field reveal.
Top of the list of challenges is that medical personnel cannot communicate with the patients properly. The situation is graver in emergency where doctors are caught in a race against time to save lives and have little time for accurate diagnosis and initiate treatment.
Like is the case globally, many hospitals in Kenya have failed to provide sign language interpreters or attempt to use staff members with limited skills in the area to communicate with deaf patients.
Records by the Health ministry show that only 100 medical personnel were covered by a recent sign language training course conducted together with the University of Nairobi.
“Three classes were trained at the university and we have about 100 health workers and nurses spread across the country who are trained in sign language. We will see what we can do to support that initiative and how we can scale it up because it is a need,” Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu said.
The training was sponsored by the National Council for Persons with Disability (NCPWD), targeting to have at least one medical staff trained in sign language per county under the three-year initiative which ended last year.
Kisumu County has rolled out a sign language training programme for its medical personnel. “I had received complaints that most of the deaf patients were not being attended to because most health workers could not communicate with them” Ojwang Lusi, the Health boss in Kisumu, said.
Some 200 health workers in Kisumu have been trained to improve communication with patients and would be posted to various health centres, the official said.
“We are starting with the health workers but we will cut across, we want to employ more than 400 assorted health personnel. Clinical officers, nurses and laboratory technicians will also be trained for easier communication,” said Elizabeth Ogoja, the county executive member for health services, said.
Listening skills
“A sign language interpreter needs to fully understand the subject at hand and be able to accurately translate the information to the recipient, listening and communication skills are imperative. That’s why we need to engage them more,” she added.
Dr Mailu has asked the counties to train personnel in sign language to improve service delivery among the deaf. “This is very good because these people need these services. It is an area which has been neglected and [Kisumu] County has done well,” he said.
Several NGOs such as Liverpool VCT have sign language training for staff involved in health programmes.
Seth Panyako, the secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Nurses, said the lobby would push for the incorporation of sign language in the curricula. Currently the Kenya Medical Training College does not have a course in sign language.
Some established hospitals in countries such as the US try to provide communication access through the use of video conferencing technology, equipment, and a high speed Internet connection to access an interpreter at a remote location (called “video remote interpreting” or VRI service).
Chronic infections
Ultimately, a patient’s medical care should never be delayed or compromised while waiting for communication access or deciding on communication needs.
Statistics by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that an estimated 360 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss which may result from genetic causes, complications at birth, certain infectious diseases, chronic ear infections, use of particular drugs, exposure to excessive noise and ageing.
In Kenya, conservative estimates show that more than 700,000 people are deaf in a total population of about 42 million.
WHO said people with hearing loss can benefit from hearing aids, cochlear implants and other assistive devices; captioning and sign language; and other forms of educational and social support.
Current production of hearing aids meets less than 10 per cent of the global need.
