Growing up as a deaf young person can be challenging. Many people, like your parents and doctors, have helped to take care of you and made sure you have the things you need to stay healthy. Now that you’re getting older, you may want to take more control of your doctor’s appointments.
Top tips
- Tell your parents that you want to have more control of your medical appointments.
- Be honest about the communication support that you need, such as sign language interpreters or information written in simple English.
- Agree with your parents the steps you’ll take to start doing more things on your own. For example, even if your parents still take you to appointments, you could agree that you’ll book the appointment and answer the doctor’s questions yourself.
- Pay attention during your appointments! Make sure you know what your health condition is and how you need to manage it.
- Remind your parents and doctors that you need to be involved in the conversation too. After all, it’s your health!
- If you’re nervous before the appointment, write a list of things you want to talk about before you go.
- Ask what will happen after your appointment so you’re clear about the next steps.
- Ask the doctor to write down any important information to help you remember it or write it down yourself after the appointment.
- Find out what services are available to help deaf people in your local area – they might have useful information for you.
