Spreading Love for the Deaf Community
By Bri Keary AEP Grad Cert. Mental Health (Candidate)
Due to communication barriers, a lack of inclusion, and insufficient awareness, deaf people can get left behind in the healthcare system and often don’t receive the education and support they need. This community provides such a rich and invaluable culture and the hearing community could have such a meaningful impact just by understanding and appreciating a few things.
I grew up lucky enough to be exposed to the deaf society, and now that I’m an Auslan-speaking health professional, I’m passionate about increasing awareness and facilitating access to inclusive healthcare for Deaf people.
Things deaf people wish hearing people knew
- Please don’t be afraid to talk to us in public. You can write things down for us to read OR a lot of us are also quite good at lip reading if there’s no mask in the way!
- Deafness often isn’t seen as a ‘disability’, but something to celebrate. Being born deaf means you will have access to a close-knit, lively and meaningful deaf community.
- It would be a tremendous help for hearing people to have a basic understanding of Auslan (Australian Sign Language). The alphabet doesn’t take long to learn, and once you know it, you can communicate anything by spelling out words.
Interesting facts about deaf culture
- Auslan (Australian Sign Language) is a language in itself with its own grammar, lexicon, and structure. Auslan-speaking Australians are therefore bilingual.
- When deaf people communicate, they are generally more direct and to-the-point
- Staring is considered more normal
- Distance is also normal. When using Auslan to communicate, you don’t have to be close enough to hear, and physical distance in a conversation is common.
- It should be understood that Deaf people often surround themselves with other Deaf people, so to them, hearing people are the abnormal ones. Deafness is not something negative, but something that allows them access to a rich and meaningful culture of other like-minded people.
Why we should support our deaf community
Deaf people are prone to many factors that lead to a decrease in mental and physical wellbeing. For example, they tend to have less health literacy, less self-efficacy and more social exclusion in health settings due to communication gaps. This has an isolating effect and leads to less use of preventative healthcare (read more here and here). Congenitally Deaf people are also more likely to have a history of traumatic events, which increases likeness of poor health outcomes (read more here).
How can health workers help?
- Provide access to deaf-tailored information sources including brochures, posters, informational sheets, subtitles, etc
- Provide sign language interpreting services or have a basic understanding of Auslan
- Provide training to employees around deaf culture
- Take the time to explain health education in the same depth you would with anyone else
- Encourage deaf people to take an active role in their treatment. They are used to taking a more passive role in their health and decision-making due to the unique conditions they have been exposed to
Just a little understanding and awareness from each of us can go a long way for the deaf community in Australia, so let’s encourage inclusivity and spread the love.
