Women with Disabilities: Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing ...

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WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES: BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO ACCESSING SERVICES DURING PREGNANCY,CHILDBIRTH AND EARLY MOTHERHOODSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College DublinComhairle (now Citizens Information Board) in conjunction with the NationalCouncil for the Blind of Ireland contacted all registered blind people in 2004 toascertain their preferred form of communication with public bodies. The resultsof this exercise, in which 1,800 people participated, showed that 54% preferredto use large print, 35% would like audio communication and 3% preferred to useBraille.2.3.4.3. Hearing impairmentAbout 3,500 women of childbearing age have significant hearing impairments. Ifwomen with hearing impairments were proportionately represented in the totalnumber of births in 2007, there would have been of the order of 280 births tosuch women. Of these, the number who would be expected to have a lot ofdifficulty in hearing, or total absence of hearing, would be approximately 95.This is given that, overall, about 60% of people of all ages with hearingimpairments have a moderate level of difficulty, about a third have a lot ofdifficulty, and about 3% cannot hear at all.In general, people with hearing impairments report finding it somewhat easier tocommunicate with health professionals than with others providing everydayservices; however, this may reflect a relationship with a particular healthprofessional and may not apply in respect of short hospital stays for maternitycare. Overall, about one in ten people with a hearing disability reported theywere unable to communicate with a health professional, while twice as manyreported they could not communicate with others providing everyday services.About 45% reported some difficulty communicating with people providingeveryday services, but 37% had moderate difficulty communicating with healthcare professionals. About a third had no difficulty communicating with peopleproviding everyday services, and this rose to half in the case of healthprofessionals (ibid, Table 15.7).15
WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES: BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO ACCESSING SERVICES DURING PREGNANCY,CHILDBIRTH AND EARLY MOTHERHOODSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin2.3.4.4. Speech disabilitiesThe number of women of childbearing age with speech disability is of the orderof 3,800. While there is some overlap between hearing and speech disabilities,there are a number of other conditions that can lead to speech difficulties. Ingeneral, this group report greater degree of difficulty in communicating withhealth care professionals and other service providers than do persons with ahearing disability. Half report that they are unable to communicate with serviceproviders generally, while about a third report that they cannot communicatewith health service staff. About 40% can communicate with health service staffwith difficulty, falling to about 35% in respect of other service providers. About aquarter have no difficulty communicating with health service professionals, butonly half that number have no difficulty communicating with other serviceproviders (ibid, Table 16.7).2.3.4.5. Mobility and dexterity impairmentsAbout 16,000 women of childbearing age, or about 2% of women in this agegroup, have disabilities affecting their mobility or dexterity. Most of these reportthat they have difficulty walking for 15 minutes, while about a third have difficultyusing hands or fingers. Across all age groups, about one in six people withimpaired mobility uses a wheelchair.2.3.4.6. Mental health difficultiesA national database on mental health does not exist in Ireland although thereare statistics on aspects such as in-hospital bed occupancy rates availablethrough the National Psychiatric Reporting System (Doyle, 2003); however, thisinformation is extraordinarily limited in scope. Whereas it might outline howmany women have been admitted, little else can be gleaned from availablesocio-demographic data. The HRB is, however, developing the WISDOMdatabase (formally known as COMCAR/NPIRS), which will cover allcomponents of the mental health services, including individual’s usage ofcommunity and inpatient services, as part of the Mental Health ResearchProgramme 2007-2011 (HRB, 2006, 2008).16
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