Saskatchewan Needs More ASL Interpreters

Deaf News: The Deaf Canadian community feels marginalized in Saskatchewan, says human rights report.

REGINA, SK -- The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission is pushing for more sign language interpreters in the province. The commission has just released a report identifying some of the barriers faced by the Deaf community.

Chief Commissioner David Arnot said people in the north suffer from a serious lack of access to services.

"There are seven trained and certified interpreters in Saskatchewan, as compared to Manitoba that has 70," he said. "So I think that is clearly an area that needs to improve."

The report also calls for universal screening of newborns and linking diagnosis with appropriate treatment.

Arnot said the commission is helping the Deaf community to meet with policy makers to address these issues. He said he believes there is the political will to make changes.

SOURCE - CBC News

Related Deaf Saskatchewanians:
Deaf Education 'Nonexistent' In First Nations
Deaf Canadian Schools In Lawsuit Alleging Abuse

Medical Services - Understanding Deaf Culture

WATCH: Medical Services Interpretation: Understanding Deaf Culture.

Participants will learn how to provide culturally sensitive and competent mental health services to members of the Deaf community through gaining a better understanding of the culture and its specific needs.

Participants will also gain a better understanding of sign language and how this can affect the process of communication in mental health treatment.

Participants will learn how Americans with Disabilities Act applies to working with Deaf individuals in mental health settings as well as how to work more effectively with interpreter in these settings.

Objectives: The cultural aspects of the Deaf community that are necessary to understand in order to effectively provide mental health counseling and to make proper diagnoses, Information regarding commonly held myths about the Deaf community, How ADA applies to this population, How to effectively communicate in the therapeutic process using a sign language interpreters,

Elijah Buchholz, LPC, is the Director of Deaf Services for the Missouri Department of Mental Health. For the past six years, Buchholz has provided mental health and substance abuse services to the Deaf community. He has conducted numerous trainings for both mental health clinicians and interpreters across Missouri and Kansas.

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Deaf Patient Denied Terp In Scottish Hospital

Deaf patient left unable to communicate with hospital staff for 12 days after staff failed to provide sign language interpreter.

DUNDEE, Scotland -- A Deaf patient was left isolated and unable to communicate for 12 days in Ninewells Hospital because of a failure to provide her with access to a sign language interpreter, according to a report by Scotland’s public services watchdog.

The female patient who had been admitted to Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital for surgery to have her appendix removed had a very limited lip reading ability and did not have a good understanding of written English.

And it was “impossible to say” with any certainty whether the deaf patient had given informed consent for the surgery,

Jim Martin, the Scottish public services ombudsman, has ruled that NHS Tayside failed to adhere to the board’s informed consent policy and found that the failure to obtain a sign language interpreter for the patient was “unacceptable”.

He states in his report that a complaint had been raised on behalf of the patient, known as Ms A, that the board failed to provide a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter during her 12-day stay at Ninewells where she had been admitted for surgery to remove her appendix.

Ms A was a BSL user with very limited lip-reading ability. She did not use verbal communication and did not have a good understanding of written English.

Mr Martin states: “Although hospital staff took steps to try to communicate with Ms A, at no point did they provide an interpreter. This was despite Ms A repeatedly pointing to a poster on the wall, which was for interpreter services, and handing staff a BSL interpreter’s card on two separate occasions.”

He continues: “In the course of my investigation I took independent advice from my equality and diversity adviser and a medical adviser. The equality adviser said that staff had not taken reasonable and appropriate steps to obtain a BSL interpreter for Ms A in line with their legal duty to do so under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010. She said that once they had been alerted to Ms A’s need for a BSL interpreter, a clear plan should have been drawn up to try to coordinate the availability of doctors and others communicating with Ms A and a BSL interpreter, sufficiently trained to be able to communicate complex medical issues.”...

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