The socio-economic status, sign language interpreter utilisation and the cost of providing South African sign language interpreter services in the Cape Metropole District health services

Deafness affects about 15- 26% of the world’s population with an estimated prevalence of 3.7% in South Africa. Although sign language Interpreters (SLIs) improve the communication challenges in health care they are unaffordable for many Deaf people. On the other hand, there are no legal provisions in place to ensure the provision of SLIs in the health sector in most countries including South Africa. However, to advocate for funding of such initiatives, reliable cost estimates are essential and such data is scarce. To bridge this gap, this study estimated the costs of providing such a service at the District health services level based on estimates obtained from a pilot-project that initiated the first South African Sign Language Interpreter (SASLI) service in health-care. The ingredients method was used to calculate the unit cost per visit at the SASLI Project level from a provider perspective. The average SASLI utilisation rate was calculated from the projects records for 2008-2013. Sensitivity analyses were carried out to determine the effect of changing the discount rate and personnel costs. The unit costs per SASLI-assisted visit were used in estimating the costs of scaling up this service to the District Health Services. Average utilisation rates increased from 1.66 to 3.58 per person per year from 2008 -2013 with unmet need falling from 38.8% in 2008 to 10.8% by 2013. The cost per visit was R2074.80 in 2013 whilst the estimated costs of scaling up this service ranged from R143.6million to R775million in the Cape Metropole District. These cost estimates represent 2.4%-12.8% of the budget for the Western Cape District Health Services. The results show that in the presence of SLIs, Deaf SL users utilise health care service to a similar extent as the average population, however this service would requires significant capital investment by government to enable access to healthcare for the Deaf.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Health Economics Unit

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Zulu, Tryphine

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sinanovic, Edina

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13268

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13268