Working with Deaf People: A Handbook for Healthcare Professionals

Long gone are the days when a deaf person is expected to struggle through a healthcare consultation with a health professional who has inadequate deaf awareness. Legislation now dictates that the onus is on the health professional to utilise the right communication skills. Deafness is very common, meaning that health professionals, whatever their specialist area, can expect to encounter a client with deafness or hearing loss on a daily basis. Working with Deaf People is intended for use as a general reference manual, offering practical advice on how to prepare for the consultation with clients who are deaf, deafblind or Deaf (i.e. use sign language as their first language). Information is offered about language, communication and culture; case studies demonstrate how the messages can be applied in practice. Every health professional, medical and nursing student, whatever their discipline and whatever country they work in, should have a copy of this book.

• The first text to bring together information on communication with deaf and deafblind clients • Case studies are used throughout the book to illustrate specific scenarios that health professionals will be able to relate to • Includes summary points given in boxes, allowing the reader to skim through the text and pick up the key messages

Contents
1. Facts and figures about deafness, NF2 and deafblindness Anna Middleton, Wanda Neary and Kerstin Möller; 2. General themes to consider when working with deaf and hard of hearing clients Anna Middleton; 3. Specialist issues relevant to working with d/Deaf clients Anna Middleton; 4. Specialist issues relevant to working with clients with neurofibromatosis Type 2 Wanda Neary; 5. Specialist issues relevant to working with clients with deafblindness Kerstin Möller; Index.

Reviews
‘This is a brilliant book that every health professional should read as part of their ongoing training. It is amazingly readable and gives insight into what it is like to be dear, or deafblind. I've worked for 17 years with deaf people and for the first time health professionals have a book that gives them sensible practical advice on working with deaf and deafblind people.' Steve Powell (CEO, SignHealth, UK)

‘This book presents some excellent material in a wide and complex field, written with such clarity that it will be useful to almost any reader whatever their background. It will be of particular value to professionals whose work brings them into contact with people who have hearing loss, enhancing the effectiveness of their work through ensuring that they can relate well to their clients/patients. However, it will also be of interest to readers who themselves live with hearing loss, helping them understand the perspectives of the professionals they encounter.' Lorraine Gailey (CEO Hearing Concern LINK)

‘This is a must-read book for all health professionals. As health provision becomes increasingly the responsibility of individual patients making choices about their own care and treatment, professionals working in health not only need medical expertise but also skills in communication and information giving. For deaf and hard of hearing patients, this requires skills not often used by the average health professional; this book guides you through the maze of how to understand and communicate with a wide range of deaf and hard of hearing patients. … Well worth keeping for those times when you may be confronted by a patient that requires different communication tactics that you have never used before, and also for patients from other countries as you learn some of the useful tips of interacting with patients that communicate differently.' Paul Redfern (Consultant: Disability & Diversity )

‘Healthcare providers in a majority hearing/sighted society, the majority of who are themselves hearing and sighted, are likely to be unfamiliar with best practice when communicating with deaf or deafblind people, unless they are working in a speciality such as audiology. This book is a handy distillation of practical improvements that can be made in a consultation setting, many of which can be achieved by increasing one's self-awareness of the perspective of the person attending. The editor, Anna Middleton, has a professional background as a genetic counsellor and therefore a good understanding, both clinically and from a research perspective, of how clinical genetics is a particularly sensitive area of medicine for many d/Deaf people. As a result, this book may be of particular interest to clinical geneticists and genetic counsellors.' Rachel Belk (Registered Genetic Counsellor, St Mary's Hospital, Manchester )

‘This is an extremely useful manual for health professionals who interact with deaf and deafblind people in a clinical setting. There are sections outlining different types of hearing loss and deafness, various methods of communications and types of communicators preferred by deaf people, as well as the historical context of genetics and eugenics with respect to deafness. For those who have little experience of meeting deaf people, the case studies emphasize common pitfalls in communication, and I will be recommending the book to trainees who are new to the field.' Maria Bitner-Glindzicz (Reader in Clinical and Molecular Genetics, UCL Institute of Child Health, and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London)

‘This is a new, unusual and very exciting book aimed at all health professionals. The book can serve professionals in training as a guideline into a world unknown for many of us. The book is clearly structured and has a holistic approach including many components of ICF. I have worked with patients with deafblindness and NF2 for over 23 years, and I realize now that this is the first book which has addressed the basic knowledge of how to interact with people who are deaf or deafblind. I sincerely recommend this book.' Claes Möller (Head of Department of Audiology and Medical Disability Research, University Hospital Örebro, Sweden)

Contributors
Anna Middleton, Wanda Neary, Kerstin Möller