Dental Care Professionals to become Deaf Aware
Dental Care Professionals are now being offered the chance to learn skills needed to communicate with patients that have difficulty of hearing.
A Wales University in Cardiff has allowed for Deafwise, a national Deaf awareness organisation, to teach three one-day courses that will equip dentist students with the communication skills that will enable them to deal and communicate with deaf patients.
Theory, demonstrations, role play and workshops will allow the students to gain an insight in what it means to be deaf as well as remove the barriers that ore often in place between the hearing and the deaf, the courses are also counted towards CPD hours.
Dentla Nurse Tutor, Sian Evans, said: “The training was important as more needed to be done to make employees deaf aware and, more importantly, it is vital that deaf patients are able to give consent and understand clearly what treatment is planned.
“It is no longer acceptable for deaf patients to experience a compromised service to their hearing counterparts because of communication issues.
“The exercises were powerful, thought-provoking and really enabled participants to experience the challenges that the deaf community faces on a day-to-day basis.”
The Dental Care Professional’s were able to identify the different types of deafness as well as address, greet and take leaved of a deaf sign user; the student could also spell the alphabet in British sign language by the end of the course.
Co-Founder of Deafwise, Spencer Clark, said: “Deafwise ensures patients with hearing difficulties have the opportunity to receive the same levels of care as those who are hearing.”
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