Offering accessible care through community partnerships
In the dynamic health-care landscape, communication is a crucial component of providing comprehensive care. For the over 3 million Canadians who are deaf or hard of hearing, verbal communication poses a variety of unique challenges. By offering services that use sign language, health-care providers can help alleviate that burden while making care more accessible to all.
Recently, our Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) Team partnered with the Bob Rumball Centre of Excellence for the Deaf to create a video series that provides IPAC information in sign language. This collaboration supports more accessible infection-prevention resources for the Deaf community.
The partnership between Sunnybrook’s IPAC team and Bob Rumball took shape during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Bob Rumball was assigned to Sunnybrook’s IPAC Hospital Hub. Throughout the pandemic, Sunnybrook supported the home with outbreak management, respiratory virus testing, lab support and real-time IPAC education. This pairing has since blossomed into an ongoing partnership, leveraging hospital resources to make a difference in the lives of North Toronto community members.
To create a truly accessible video series, our IPAC team collaborated with Bob Rumball and their sign language interpreter to share essential information, including hand hygiene, infection prevention, and proper methods of environmental cleaning, with closed captioning overlay. By co-creating a video using sign language, we’re reaching members of the Deaf community who would otherwise not have access to this important information.
“Creating this video series is an important step in advancing health equity both at the hospital and in our community”, says Jaclyn O’Brien, Sunnybrook infection prevention & control practitioner. “We believe everyone in the Deaf community deserves equitable access to important information, just like everyone else, and this video series is helping accomplish that goal”.
The videos will be shared with more than 100 organizations across North America, reaching over 4,000 people, creating an even greater impact in the Deaf community.
These types of collaborations not only strengthen our integration with community partners across North Toronto, but they also allow us to offer accessible and equitable care, deepening the trust between the Deaf community and the broader health-care system.
