The mental health charter
All people working in the health service would agree that patients have certain basic rights. Staff can easily say what patients should be entitled to. However, when presented with a deaf patient most staff are not too sure. They are simply unaware of how those rights can be applied to a deaf patient.
The mental health charter has 10 basic rights that all deaf patients should have. These are the bare minimum of what a patient should expect. Many services will, thankfully, try to provide more than this. The Charter is a useful starting point for services who recognise that their deaf patients have rights. The Charter is also useful for deaf patients who want to remind services what they should be doing.
Covering letter from Sign and Mental Health Foundation
The Charter was produced by the Mental Health Foundation and Sign.