To: Robert Butler (MP)

Adult Deaf people to have BSL Trained Caregivers

I work with adults with care and support needs some of whom are deaf. I have been listening to their storeys, the lack of BSL trained caregivers impacts on how they live on day to day basis. It is like their freedom is taken away from them; they also have a right to freedom of expression like everyone else. In Aylesbury, there are no caregivers who can work with profound deaf people. This needs to change immediately.

We need a new law that protects deaf people wherever they go in the country that they may have advocates, be it in Banks, hospitals, or accessing community, and the list should be endless.

Why is this important?

This is a group which has been neglected due to their communication difficulties; someone has to speak for them. I visited this profound deaf person this month of February who has just lost her father a week ago and the funeral was next day. She reveals to me how people walk past her as if she does not exist, do tasks at her house without asking for her opinion, attends appointments having promised an Interpreter but to no avail. She needs you and me to make her voice heard.