Your Spring 2021 Issue of HLAA-PA HearSay

Self-Advocacy for Hospital Safety

by Mike Miles

During the pandemic, there have been numerous articles and webinar discussions concerning the communication difficulties experienced by people with hearing loss. The most obvious difficulty is due to most people wearing masks. Not only does a mask muffle the voice, but it also takes away the ability to lip read. On top of that, it is recommended that we stay at least six feet away from others.
What I’ve described contributes to the daily stress we’ve all experienced this past year (yes, it has already been a year!). But now let’s put ourselves in a doctor’s office or in a hospital for a procedure. I went to my audiologist for new hearing aids in August. At the check-in desk, not only was the employee wearing a mask, but she also talked to me while sitting behind thick plexiglass and looking sideways at her computer. And she had an accent. Does any of this sound familiar?
The good news for me was that I wasn’t addressing a serious medical condition. What if the setting was the emergency room and I was in significant pain? Or I was about to be put under anesthesia, but the surgeon had a few questions for clarification? Understanding what is said behind masks can be important.
Medical situations can be stressful in a normal world for people with hearing loss, but COVID-19 has increased the number of roadblocks we have to overcome in order to guarantee our safety. The good news is that living with hearing loss has hopefully taught us to advocate for ourselves in order to function in a hearing world.
Several HLAA chapter members and the national HLAA office recognized the importance of communicating in medical settings for people with hearing loss, and in 2018, they prepared a Guide for Effective Communication in Health Care. It is broken down into two sections, one for the patient and one for the medical provider, and is available on the HLAA website at the link below. Fill out the two-page form titled “Communications Access Plan (CAP)” prior to your appointment or procedure and ask for the CAP information to be included in your medical chart.

hearingloss.org/wp-content/uploads/HLAA_HC_Full_Guide.pdf

HLAA also offers a detailed guide on “How Do I Communicate with Doctors, Nurses, and Staff at the Hospital During COVID-19?” at this link:

hearingloss.org/communication-access-recommendations-hospitals-covid-19/

In January, the Southeast PA chapters held a combined Zoom meeting entitled “How to Self-Advocate in a Healthcare Setting.” The speaker was Elaine McCaffrey, the President of the HLAA-Chicago North Shore Chapter and an HLAA Board of Directors member. Several years ago, Elaine’s chapter made communication in healthcare settings a high-priority topic. They invited representatives from all of the Chicago area hospitals to a panel discussion with chapter members about what the hospitals were doing to provide accommodations for deaf and hard of hearing people.
When the first panel was held in 2015, it was interesting to note that the only accommodation offered by the four attending hospitals was ASL interpreting. Elaine commented that the hospitals were embarrassed to find out how little they knew about the needs of hard of hearing people, but all were committed to return in 2016 to talk about what they were able to implement at their respective hospitals based on what they learned from the audience. Here is a link to an article about this chapter’s advocacy concerning hospital settings:

hearinglosschicagonorthshore.com/advocacy-1

The chapter’s self-advocacy recommendations for hospital communication are at the following link:

hearinglosschicagonorthshore.com/hospital-safety-1

To summarize, only you can communicate your individual needs to medical professionals, which is why the CAP form mentioned above is so important. Bring it with you to every medical appointment and add to it if you feel there is something that is not covered. A final recommendation is to prepare a placard like the one at the link below, which gives communication options for a masked speaker, and print it in a bright color to hang on your bed or medical chart. We can’t assume that medical professionals know everything about the needs of hard of hearing people. Self-advocacy will make sure they are informed.

hearingloss.org/wp-content/uploads/Deaf-Hard-of-Hearing-Medical-Placard.pdf