Melbourne’s Eastern Health is working to improve access to mental health for deaf and hard of hearing people.
The health service will be distributing Expression Australia AUSLAN communication cards at its locations to help deaf and hard of hearing people feel safe while waiting for their loved ones, carers and Auslan interpreters when accessing services.
Eastern Health project leaders, senior psychiatric nurse Harry Singh and disability officer Christina Georgiadis, said the Auslan communication cards were specifically tailored to mental health and supported communication between consumers and mental health practitioners.
“The cards will help our employees query communication preferences using text, images and videos. They ask if they’re okay with a virtual interpreter and then address some mental health questions.
“These are the questions frontline mental health nurses are asking to guide consumers to the safest place in the emergency department, clinic or ward. This will bridge a communication gap felt by both employees and consumers due to the language barrier,” said Georgiadis.
“We want anyone who comes to our organization and identifies as deaf or hard of hearing to know that we have the resource at their fingertips. There is also an online version which can be accessed via QR code,” Singh added.
“Our staff are equipped accordingly and this is a way to make people feel welcome and make them aware that we really understand them and want to help them. When they actually come to our department, they are often very distressed and can experience an acute psychological attack. Better communications resources help build trust in our service and engage with our consumers.”
Countless hours of work have gone into research and consultation with professionals and the community to ensure the maps are effective and relevant in healthcare.
Eastern Health will be the only public mental health service contributing to this Expression Australia initiative.
“Eastern Health was invited to be one of the key players in the Deaf Regional Health project funded by the Information, Linkages and Capacity Building Grant in 2020. Eastern Health has been instrumental in providing insight into how the hospital system works, such as “how the interpreter booking system works and how to improve access to healthcare for deaf and hard of hearing patients,” said Rebecca Adam, CEO of Expression Australia.
Singh said Eastern Health has sought feedback from the consumer-facing teams in its mental health and emergency departments. “They noted key questions that would help them understand the mental health needs of these consumers. Expression Australia used our knowledge and expertise to then translate our questions into Foreign Language and met with its deaf and hard of hearing mental health consumers to determine what would be most appropriate,” he said.
The cards are not intended to be used as a replacement for an interpreter, but rather complement the use of interpreter services and enable staff to engage in cases where access to an appropriate Australian interpreter is delayed.