news : new developments : Deaf Service Spec

Specialised environment for Deaf Service

With the incidence of mental illness in the hearing impaired population reported at approximately 40%, the need for a specialised Deaf Service is clear. Our dedicated service has been developed in partnership with Sign Health and Deaf Connect to ensure that the environment meets this distinct service user group's needs.

Many of our staff on the ward will be hearing impaired or Deaf and all staff will have completed Deaf Awareness training. As many therapies delivered on the ward rely on clear communication, this training has been essential to guarantee service user's receive care in an accessible way and through a familiar format. Many of the frustrations felt by our service user's result in being unable to express themselves clearly so by addressing the tool used for communication, we aim to break down some of those barriers.

The environment also has been carefully planned in consultation with our specialist service development team. Features such as round tables to support signing requirements have been used in communcal areas to allow individuals to position themselves with plenty of space and in a circular fashion, enabling everyone at the table to be able to see each other when signing. Diffuse lighting has been used in preference of a strong sinlgle light source to reduce shadows which can serve as a distraction when using sugn language.

Service user safety and wellbeing has been prioritised for the alarm systems. Fire alarms and doorbell's have been fitted with flashing lights which will alert service users and staff to a situation. Staff will also carry pager's set to vibrate which should alllow them to receive a text signal when a fire sensor has beenactiavted, reducing the reliance on sounder and visual alarms.

Communication has been adapted, with the introduction of text phones thorugh the unit and instructions on how to communicate via textphoen introduced on the intranet to allow staff thorughout the charity to communicate with all services easily. This facility has been extended to the link in lifts for emergencies with video telephone links installed to allow communication through any medium to occur swiflty in the case of an emergency.

For futher details on our deaf service or any other of our new specialist services in William Wake House opening December 2010, please contact our enquiries team on 0800 434 6690