Deaf field officer for Christchurch

Press, 26 May 1981, Page 13

Deaf field officer for Christchurch

A field officer for the deaf has been appointed in Christchurch as a result of a $35,000 grant from the Lottery Funds Board. He is Mr David Chilwell, a former president of the Christchurch Deaf Club.

Until recently no satisfactory welfare services were available for the deaf in New Zealand, apart from liaison officers connected with local deaf clubs. Mr Chilwell is one of three field officers, all of whom are deaf, recently appointed in New Zealand. Mr John Hunt was appointed in Auckland in October, 1980 and Mrs Patricia Dugdale has just taken up the appointment in Wellington. In 1979 it was estimated that 6000 people in New Zealand ' were profoundly deaf. A survey in Wellington last year estimated that 7500 people in Wellington, were deaf: about 5700 of these were handicapped by their deafness. Mr Don Joe Manning, the field office co-ordinator for the New Zealand Association of the Deaf said that he expected there would be more deaf people in Christchurch, but the exact number was unknown. For some time the association had seen the need for full-time field officers to help deaf people with communication and welfare problems. Mr Manning, who is in Christchurch running a training session for Mr Chilwell and Mrs Dugdale, said that deaf people tended to understand deaf people better than hearing people. Often a deaf

person would not trust a hearing person with personal problems.

The field office for the deaf opened at the corner of Colombo Street and St Asaph Streets late in March and already Mr Chilwell has had to act as an interpreter and advocate for the deaf in a number of situations.

Mr Manning said that he already saw the need for an assistant field officer in Christchurch and this would increase as the agency became more well known.

In choosing deaf people as field officers, the association had. people who could communicate well with deaf people who had problems. But it also meant that the field officers were not fully qualified social workers. All the officers had supervisors who helped with difficult problems.

In Christchurch the supervisor is Mr Doug Sexton who has acted as a voluntary social worker for the deaf for some time. The association intends holding a seminar in Christchurch for social work agencies to meet Mr Chilwell.

Mr Manning said that the association was. hoping for continued Government funding for the field offices, and also for support from local sources and the Telethon Trust.