Sign language is useful and comprehensive in medicine

And theIt’s essential for medical personnel to learn Mexican Sign Language (MSL), and thus help or guide deaf-mute patients, helping clear up any doubts they may have in counseling, said Maria Guadalupe Fragoso Palafox, chair of the New York City Disability District. Dr. Gallo Soberon Y Bara Health Center.

book author Disability is not a disabilityHe explained that the Ministry of Health carried out a series of trainings in the LSM targeting medical personnel in hospital entities affiliated with the Office of the Mayor of Azcapotzalco, so that they would learn that language as another language and be able to communicate with patients with hearing impairments.

All associations that fight for the deaf community in some way strive for the right to integrate into society, LSM is another language to communicate with them and find out what they need or want, and to be able to support them, he added.

The field of research in the National School of Social Work- UNAM.
Coordination of research studies and intervention with families, content review. a. Andrea Kenya Sanchez Zepeda.
Field Research, Office and Content Development: COPRED Social Communication. Jorge Morales Novas.
Design: ENTS Social Communication.

He pointed out that when health workers care for a hearing impaired person, they do not know how to communicate with them, so it is necessary to search for a series of tools that help in communicating with them even without knowing the LSM, including pen and paper, if they know how to read the patient, or use Mime and a series of drawings, in case he does not know how to read or write.

In addition, we have to see them from the front so that we can understand them, and we have a sheet of paper, a triad, a dichotomy, “and if we have a computer, use it to show them faster what we want to teach them,” he continued when participating in the Conference on the Use of Sign Language in Medical Practice that Organized by the College of Medicine.

But health workers must learn not only sign language, but also guards, for example, because they are the first contact with patients and direct people who come to medical care.

In addition, it is necessary to know such important tools as the organization of people with hearing disabilities. While caring for them, a certain distance must be kept with them “to use our hands properly, not to cover our mouths because many have lip reading, not to chew gum or not eat, because they will not understand us.”

Similarly, the 2017 winner of the Medical Prize, awarded by the Matilda P. Montoya Women’s Medical Association, recommended that when caring for a person with this disability “we should not drag them by the shoulder, because they feel aggressive, we should touch them with our index finger to contact them and attract their attention.”

He added that unfortunately, few people in the health field know Mexican sign language, and there is still much to learn, if this language was known in every office, the panorama would be different, and the same community would go to counseling in a common way.

The doctor, who lost her hearing at the age of 11, stated that not only health workers must learn LSM, but society in general, to be able to interact with this population.

72 million in the world

In this regard, Daphne Abigail Barqueira Guevara, a student in the Student Research Support and Promotion Program at FM, emphasized that according to the World Federation of the Deaf, there are approximately 72 million deaf or deaf-mute people in the world, more than 80 percent live in developing countries and use Among them are more than 300 different sign languages.

Regarding Mexico, added the moderator of the talk, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography stated that there are about two million people with hearing impairments, 35 percent of whom are between 30 and 59 years of age and 47 percent are older than 60.

Guadalupe Fragoso, who is also an LSM coach, noted that one of the very successful measures with regard to the inclusion of deaf-mute people is having interpreters on TV, “This helps us a lot, because society can find out what’s going on in the world.”

However, he explained that this procedure was not fully accepted and that only some television programs in the country put subtitles in their programs, which can also help the deaf community, especially if they know how to read, although they do not know it in theaters. I fully respected this procedure. “Awareness is required so that television and film programs are accompanied by a translator or accompanied by subtitles to communicate with the community.”

Finally, he said, trust between the doctor and the patient arises if the former knows sign language, and if they communicate correctly there will be no problem, but if a family member intervenes “we should really confirm what they tell us.”