Amelia Manor is first nursing home in the area starting special program for deaf-blind patients
Starting deaf-blind community at Amelia Manor
Brittany Bodden
October 4, 2013
LAFAYETTE, LA (KADN) — For the deaf and the blind in our community things are changing. Amelia Manor has been a big part of that change as the first nursing home in the state to hire interpreters for deaf and blind patients. Finally these patients can communicate.
“Before he was very, very sad. Now we encourage each other. He was depressed, very depressed,” says Kim Hebert, a deaf patient at Amelia Manor.
Deaf-blind advocate Paulette Guthrie changed things for people like Kim. Before moving to Amelia Manor Kim was the only deaf person in his nursing home. So to move here, to finally be with others like him, has been a blessing.
“It was new to him to be here and he helped and taught and learned. It encouraged everybody. Wow, he was happy,” says Hebert.
And it wasn’t just life changing for him. The deaf patients and the blind patients have bonded, creating their own community at Amelia Manor. All thanks to Paulette’s relentless efforts. These new patients have sparked an interest with the therapists that work here at Amelia Manor to learn sign language so they can better interact with the patients.
“The patients are so friendly and they make you want to communicate with them. They have the biggest smiles and when we do signs with them they smile even bigger. They really seem to enjoy the fact that we want to learn,” says Cassie Augustin, speech pathologist with The Therapy Center.
And even though learning sign language is a big challenge the therapists know it will help them better serve the patients in the long run.
“Even though they can’t speak some of them may have trouble with their memory that they need to address, and I want to be able to communicate better with them,” says Augustin.
And they want that too.
“The deaf blind they lack communication. No communication, we need to start more and more and more to grow and grow with communication,” says Joseph Donellan, deaf patient at Amelia Manor.
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