The Communication for Safe Care (C4SC) project, targets the enhancement of healthcare accessibility for approximately 1.2 million Australians with communication disabilities. Communication challenges within healthcare settings can lead to inadequate information transfer, misdiagnosis, poor outcomes, and preventable deaths. The project partnered with a rural oral health service to implement solutions developed through co-design workshops aimed at improving communication accessibility. Utilising a co-design approach, the project engaged healthcare workers and consumers over an 18-month period through interviews, surveys, and observations. This process identified 10 to 15 key issues per site, including excessive jargon, negative attitudes toward disabilities, insufficient time for communication, lack of accessible resources, and non-accessible environments. Co-design workshops were conducted with stakeholders to develop effective solutions. The project team collaborated with the oral health service to establish a process for identifying individuals with communication support needs. A new question was integrated into the triage system, asking consumers, “Do you or the person you are calling for have difficulty communicating or understanding information?” Staff received comprehensive training on communication in healthcare, including support needs and reasonable adjustments. Data was collected over eight weeks from consumers calling the service, with a significant percentage of consumers identifying as having a communication support need. Sensory disabilities were the most common, while the data also indicated that many consumers planned to have a support person attend their appointments. Others required simple adjustments like a slower speech rate or louder volume. The findings highlight the importance of identifying if people have communication support needs, to allow for reasonable adjustments to be made.

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Karmas, R., Kneebone, K. and Murphy, F. (2022) Communication for Safe Care: enhancing healthcare access for people with communication disabilities.
Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology
23(
3), 114-117.
https://doi.org/10.1080/22087168.2022.12370369