Last week was Deaf Awareness Week with this year’s theme ‘Celebrating Love and Trust’. First started by the UK Council on Deafness, this year it’s about ‘embracing diversity, championing inclusivity and creating a world where every voice, whether spoken or signed, is heard and valued’.
This campaign is close to our hearts as we continue to strive for inclusive communication in all our work. It’s important to us that we make adjustments for those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing so they can be fully involved in decisions relating to health and social care. Our projects exist to help people speak up and have influence over their health, wellbeing, and social care services.
Our user involvement projects make sure the voices of people are heard and they are able to actively shape and improve the services they use and shape local and national policy. One such project is ‘Older People’s Voice’ which runs consultations, speaking up groups and events for older people in Westminster. Members’ views are fed back to commissioners and service providers that plan and run services for older adults. One of our hard of hearing members shares in this blog post the difficulties they’ve faced due to a lack of inclusive communication in health and social care.
The communication barriers to equitable health and social care which this members’ blog highlights are unfortunately reflective of many of the examples that we learn about through our work. As one member of the Older People’s Voice group said:
“It’s easy to feel invisible when you’re old. This group gives me a chance to feel heard.”
We aim to provide spaces in which people across all ages and care groups can understand their rights, make effective choices about their lives and voice their concerns, no matter their communication style. We’re always learning from those we work with so that we can continue to adapt as an organisation who puts inclusivity at the heart of their work. If you’d like to find out more about how you can support us or get involved in our work, please contact us – we’d love to hear from you.