The Dilemma of Long Term Care for the Elderly Deaf

I don’t like to think of myself as living in a bubble, unaware of the plight of others, but sometimes an issue is brought to my attention and I am dismayed to realize that I’ve never given a thought to something that is so monumental to someone else.

That happened today. I had a few back and forth e-mail exchanges with a woman I have never met. I will call her Mary. In the course of telling one another our respective stories, she mentioned that her father has been deaf all of his life. In his youth he attended schools for the deaf and communicates using American Sign Language. For most of his working years he lived in California, worked in the airline industry and had many friends in the deaf community there.

Life was good for many years but, then, as he aged his health became more fragile. He suffered several strokes and was unable to care for himself. Mary, who has lived in Arkansas with her family for the past 18 years, moved him there. Initially, he was placed in a nursing home but it was impossible for him to communicate with his caregivers and vice versa. Mary quit her job as a teacher’s aide in special education and is now caring for her father in her home.

Mary’s aunt, who lost her hearing at the age of nine, is one of the founders of an assisted living facility and nursing home, expressly for the deaf, that is being built in Phoenix. Other such facilities exist in Massachusetts, Ohio and Texas. None of the three existing facilities is located near Mary, however, and don’t provide a solution to her and her father’s problems.

Mary commented that she has been unable to find another deaf person in a nursing home anywhere in the entire state of Arkansas. It seems the elderly deaf in Arkansas are cared for in the homes of family members. But, Mary pointed out, not all deaf have kids who can care for them and the challenges for the deaf in the medical world are immense. Even if Mary’s father were living in a deaf community, the strokes he has suffered have affected his ability to sign, complicating his ability to communicate with others who sign.

I had never considered the difficulties and isolation faced by the elderly deaf when they are cared for in a strictly hearing environment where no one is trained in sign language. The very idea of such a lonely existence is heartbreaking. Under the best of circumstances patients struggle with adjusting to long-term care facilities. Imagine being in unfamiliar surroundings, unable to communicate pain and discomfort to your caregivers or being unable to understand instructions and explanations from them. Imagine having limited, if any, means to socialize with hearing residents. It is a disheartening picture.

Please share any experiences you have had caring for the deaf, particularly the elderly deaf.