Sophie Wellington discusses how the d/Deaf community can be misdiagnosed due to a lack of awareness of d/Deaf culture. The law clearly states that d/Deaf individuals have a right to an interpreter at medical appointments. However, for many reasons, there are times when this is not provided, which can lead to the patient not receiving suitable medical care.
Being unaware of d/Deaf culture can lead to serious misdiagnoses of these individuals. Particularly within mental illness, d/Deaf people can have symptoms that go unnoticed because they are expressed differently to hearing patients. For example, a common symptom of schizophrenia is auditory hallucinations. Hard of hearing individuals who are still able to communicate through spoken language are much less likely to experience these hallucinations. Instead, it is reported that these manifest as visions of people signing, or lips moving, rather than a sound phenomenon. For people who are pre-lingually d/Deaf, auditory hallucinations do not occur. However, this is still a very under-researched topic of medicine.
Without a sign interpreter, medical professionals who are unable to communicate in sign language are likely to misinterpret their d/Deaf patients. In cases where the patients have become frustrated with the lack of understanding, it is possible for their behaviour to then be misunderstood. One real-life example of this reported that a d/Deaf patient was seen to be "acting erratic" when he was given improper care, leading to unnecessary distress. Not until he spoke with a sign interpreter was he discharged from hospital.
"In the first case, the patient is a 26-year-old prelingually Deaf male, who was placed under an involuntary hold by the emergency room physician for acting erratic and appearing to respond to internal stimuli. The patient was later interviewed with an interpreter and stated he became upset because the staff was not providing him proper care as they lacked an ability to communicate with him. The patient’s family was called who corroborated the story and requested he be discharged."
As well as ensuring diagnoses are accurate, changes must be made so that treatment for psychiatric illnesses are accessible to d/Deaf people. This requires easy access to interpreters and a good knowledge of this culture, but also modifications to treatment plans.
Important Link: Misinterpretation of Psychiatric Illness in Deaf Patients
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