Adults & Seniors
Deaf Aotearoa services works from a whole-of-life approach. Our Adults & Seniors service is person-centric and supports a Deaf individual’s goals and aspirations while also supporting the wider Deaf community in general.
The Adults & Seniors service is provided to the community by our team of Facilitators: Adults & Seniors. The team are throughout the country and this enables Deaf people to receive the same support wherever they live.
Deaf people enter our Adults & Seniors service and engage with our Pathway Assessors. They discuss what the priority areas are of the individuals and consider a path to achieve the goals determined by the service user. Following this the Facilitators will work with individuals and their families to access services that suit them. Often these are in the areas of housing, benefits, finances, employment and health. Another aspect of our Adults & Seniors service is assisting Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to obtain hearing assistive equipment.
Another aspect of the Adults & Seniors service is collaborating with organisations to build relationships and get the best outcomes for the Deaf community and the individuals we work with.
Our facilitators engage with employers to help them to understand more about employing Deaf people, including information about equipment, Deaf Culture, communication and funding for NZSL interpreters in the workplace.
Facilitators can be contacted via video calls, emails, text or by visiting our offices around the country. The team can support individuals with document translation, booking an interpreter, connecting with social and health services, as well as access to technology.
The 8223 free text service that we implemented this year has enabled the Deaf community to get in touch with the team when they want to access services. This has been well received.
Once we returned to the offices following COVID-19 conditions, we were able to work with local communities to re-establish 5 outreach centres, these are in Whakatane, Opotoki, Levin, Gisborne, and Wairoa. There are plans to extend the outreach services to Waihi, Paeroa, Rotorua and Matamata in early 2023. The team have worked with the communities in Whangarei, Dargaville and Gisborne to establish community gatherings and enable people to reconnect after a difficult period through COVID-19.