Introduction to Physiotherapy in Auslan

This Auslan resource was created by physiotherapy students from The University of Melbourne as part of the Health Promotion Project in 'Deaf Awareness and Physiotherapy' in collaboration with Vicdeaf.
The students involved in this project are:
Navneet Taggar
Emily Marr
Matthew Lee
Priya Sundaram
Avnish Sandhu
A primary aim for this online resource is to increase Deaf community awareness regarding the physiotherapy services that are offered and how these services can be accessed. A report by Queensland Health in 2001, identified a widespread dissatisfaction with healthcare interaction within the Deaf community and poor treatment outcomes as a consequence. Therefore, educating the Deaf community on expectations during interactions with healthcare professionals (e.g. physiotherapists), can potentially lead to better health outcomes for this community. Currently, sites such as the “Better Health Channel” are readily available to the general public. However, studies have shown that health literacy within the Deaf community is lower than the general population (Jones et al., 2007). This gap has been attributed to communication barriers, in combination with lack of funding for interpreters during health appointments. These findings highlight the need for the development of Auslan-based information resources in the aim of improving the Deaf community's health literacy and potentially bridge the identified gap in current care.