About Me

About Me

I am Kevin Rose, a researcher, teacher and analyst. I have also been hard-of-hearing since a very early age. While earning a MPH degree from CSU Long Beach I became interested in the health of the Deaf population. Since I couldn't find any comprehensive review of this topic, I decided to write one myself.


I will use this blog to keep readers informed of new developments in the research of the health of the Deaf.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Literature Review on Healthcare Access for Deaf Seniors

Image
The “intersectionality of identities” is the idea that we all belong to multiple groups at once based on characteristics such as our age, race, gender and the presence of disabilities. Being a senior and being a member of the Deaf community have separately been shown to have an important impact on one's health, but what does the literature say about people who are both? Lesch et al. conducted a review of the literature and found that obstacles to healthcare were common for this group, including: Like younger Deaf, the elderly Deaf experience difficulty in making appointments, with the added burden of an increasing number and severity of healthcare issues Lack of providers who will accept Medicaid and Medicare insurance Lack of validated tests to assess the cognitive function of Deaf patients Lack of healthcare providers with competence in communicating with Deaf patients and understanding Deaf culture Lack of shared understanding around end of life decisions between healthca...
Read more

Difficulties in Assessing Mental Status of Deaf Patients

Image
Previous studies have shown that cultural differences between Deaf patients and hearing healthcare practitioners can lead to the overdiagnosis of psychotic disorders. Gawad & Helminiak present a case report of a Deaf 34-year-old man who was referred to a hospital psychiatric unit from a jail. He had had 3 prior admissions and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia each time. His rapid recovery after therapy was initiated led the authors to conclude that he was not schizophrenic but had experienced either a manic episode or the effects of substance abuse. The authors describe how the presentation of Deaf people in distress, the differences between communication in ASL versus English, and the lack of standardized and validated ASL mental assessment tools can lead to the misdiagnoses of psychotic disorders in this population. They conclude by offering advice for healthcare practitioners on assessing the mental status of Deaf patients. Gawad, N.A. & Helminiak, A. (2018). Lo...
Read more

Deaf Medical Student Successfully Completes Emergency Department Rotation

Image
One strategy to reduce health disparities for the Deaf is to facilitate the training of students from their communities to become healthcare providers and educators. A barrier to this strategy is the unfounded fear by medical schools that accommodating Deaf students in fast-paced, stressful rotations such as Emergency Medicine is either not possible or too difficult and expensive. Meeks et al. describe the case of a Deaf medical student who successfully completed an Emergency Department (ED) rotation, using the following strategies: The student disclosed the disability 2 months prior to the beginning of the rotation, giving the medical school staff time to craft the appropriate accommodations The ED and college disability directors held a training session for ED staff on how to work with deaf students in the clinical setting 2 weeks before the student arrived Designated interpreters with specialized training in healthcare terminology were hired for every experience the student wo...
Read more