Sign-language course for health workers kicks off

Muscat: The Ministry of Health (MOH) represented by the Non-Communicable Diseases Department, Section Programs for Persons with Disabilities and with the support of Oman LNG Development Foundation launched a training sign-language course for the health workers at the primary healthcare institutions.  

A specific number of health workers from each governorate have been targeted to train their colleagues on sign language in the future.

The course aims to qualify sign-language Omani translators as adopted translators in medical disciplines in the health institutions to provide easy health services for persons with disabilities, especially those with hearing impairment and to ensure the equal rights and duties between citizens in accordance with the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities signed by the Sultanate.

Dr Shada Al-Raisi, Director of Non-Communicable Diseases welcomed the participants and stressed the importance of this language in breaking down the barriers between persons with hearing impairment and health workers.

This course is a multi-level serial course with the five sign-language communication skills curriculum that is adopted by the Ministry of Labour to outcome adopted sign-language translators to be reliable in clarifying information and all related to persons with hearing impairment (from persons with hearing impairment to the hearers and vice versa).

Through Community Training Institute, The course includes intensive training courses in the local, Arabic and foreign sign-language along with the mechanisms of translation carried by qualified and adopted experts in sign-language translation, as well as a number of trainers with hearing impairment.

The three-month training course started this week till the last week of December and will be followed by a number of courses.