Mistrust between Deaf patients and hearing staff in healthcare settings

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to healthcare communication literature by providing factors that result in mistrust and miscommunication for Deaf people. Deaf people experience a lot of health inequity, which can be, in large part, attributed to being a result of communication and misunderstanding between Deaf people and healthcare staff, resulting in mistrust. Presenting outcomes of practical experiments as well as theoretical reasons for the misunderstanding and mistrust allows to make suggestions about how to improve communication for the future. This review can serve as guidance for factors that contribute to miscommunication that should be avoided by healthcare staff and for lessons learned from positive experiences that should be scaled up and applied to ensure more clear and supportive communication.