Helping the Deaf

Marcida Dodson’s article (July 17) about the fine interpreter program for deaf patients at Chapman General Hospital received much interest here at the Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled in Garden Grove. We also are concerned with provision of communication assistance for the deaf in medical emergencies.

While we applaud the high quality of the program, we want to inform The Times’ readers about another option for deaf patients. Commend (Communication Medical Emergency Network for the Deaf), a service providing interpreters in crisis situations, is available 24 hours per day anywhere in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Originated in 1980 in cooperation with the Southern California Hospital Council, Commend was developed by the Dayle McIntosh Center to augment its communication service.

Commend is a mechanism that connects deaf people with a relay operator who contacts the hospital, transmits information from the emergency room to the caller, and dispatches an interpreter when needed.

Commend maintains a membership of 45 hospitals, including all those in the Kaiser organization, whose annual fees support the service. Deaf patients may use Commend at any hospital, however, from San Clemente to San Fernando. A pool of 24 interpreters located throughout the two counties responds to emergency calls within 30 minutes.

In its six years of operation Commend has been called upon hundreds of times to help mothers through childbirth, surgery patients through operations and victims through the terror of accidents and violence. This on-the-spot communications aid diminished fears, facilitated understanding of both patient and doctor, and sometimes helped save lives.

To use Commend, deaf people call in via their Telephone Device for the Deaf. Hospitals admitting deaf patients call the same number on a voice phone. The number, for emergency use only, is (800) 422-7444.

PAULA MARGESON

Director of Programs

Dayle McIntosh Center

Garden Grove