Imagine a deaf person gets struck by a car, and wakes up in the hospital with no way to understand what is happening for them. The doctor doesn’t know they are deaf and is desperately trying to get their consent for an emergency surgery. The situation is dire with neither the doctor nor the patient knowing what to do. The Institute for the Advancement of Deaf Persons in Israel has developed a solution to assure that medical professionals can effectively serve deaf patients. More than that, we also make sure that deaf Israelis know what to do if they are confronted ith medical emergencies or even day to day interactions with healthcare professionals who have never had to communicate with a deaf person.
We are the only organization in Israel that makes the most basic human services that are supposed to be easily available to all Israel accessible to the deaf Israeli community as well.
Today we are raising money for the Making Health Care Accessible program.
Emergency or even basic health care is all too often inaccessible for deaf and hard of hearing Israelis. We have developed a solution but not we need your help to make it a reality on the ground at specific hospitals and with members of the community. We still see many cases in which deaf and hard of hearing patients have difficulty communicating with their doctor or with hospital staff. The result is sub-standard and at times inappropriate medical treatment. At best this is frustrating but at worst, it could cost a deaf person their life. It is not just the patients who suffer: deaf relatives and friends of people in the hospital may not have access to information about their loved ones. Deaf parents may not have full information available to them when making choices about their children, or may be forced to be dependent on their hearing children to interpret for them. Hospitals may not know how to contact deaf people to tell them a loved one is in the hospital.
To implement this program it will cost approximately $40,000 dollars and we have already raised half of that. Now we are coming to you, those who care most about the well being of the Israeli Deaf community, to help raise the remaining $20,000.
We are working on this program with the inistry of Health and once we have proven its success at improving health care and saving lives in the death community, we anticipate it being funded by the government. Whether it helps a deaf person get an early cancer detection, or in the emergency room, this program is essential.
Please donate now, $100 or whatever you can give and then just as important, share this campaign with your friends and family. Tell them you donated, how important it is, and ask them to join you. Together we can be a part of providing equal accessibility to health and emergency medical care to the deaf community in Israel.
