For this assignment, I read Health Care Delivery and Deaf People written by Lisa Harmer.

The journal article takes on an etiological approach by explaining the various factors that contribute to distrust between Deaf patients and medical providers. Rather, it is not simply a barrier to communication that affects quality of care, but a patients hesitancy to seek medical help due to past experiences. The article then rattles off various statistics that result from such a fact, such as higher unemployment rates (70.8%), less education, and less likelihood to be adequately insured. Many researchers understand the gravity of the situation, but are unable to compile accurate information to enact change. When doing research, it is essential that the subgroup being surveyed is representative of the group as a whole. Unfortunately, this imposes serious limitations to studies on Deaf patients because the samples that respond tend to be wealthier and more educated than the average Deaf individual. Because the target population (e.g. poor, Deaf individuals) are not properly represented, the findings of the study are rendered meaningless. This causes issues, in terms of policy, because of the lack of information available to enact change. This article answered questions that I had not even thought to ask. More specifically, how does lack of health education affect Deaf teenagers? When I was siphoning through various journal articles, I found that there was a lot of emphasis placed on medical diagnosis and very little on the underlying causes of these statistics. Harmer found that, due to communication difficulties, many Deaf students are at greater risk for sexual abuse than hearing students. Moreover, she argues that the lack of information regarding sex education places Deaf youth in an even more vulnerable position. It was interesting to see how communication barriers affect not only the relationship with medical providers, but also other facets of life. While health care is important, this article shed a light on bigger issues that the Deaf community faces on a daily basis. It was quite an eye-opening read.