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Communication Environment & Balance

Issues Related to the Communication Environment

When survivors have a functional limitation in balance, especially if it is accompanied by dizziness, they may experience difficulty within the average communication environment.  Dizziness and the need to focus on balance may make it difficult for them to comprehend explanations of rules or descriptions of services.  

Examples of Problems

  • A person with personal navigation and stability problems may have difficulty following instructions in a busy, crowded environment.
  • A provider may communicate with a survivor in an average to rapid pace without realizing that the survivor may need more time for ordinary conversational dialogue due to unsteadiness related to lightheadedness or dizziness.
  • A survivor may have a reduced reaction time to experiences which may result in a provider failing to acknowledge those experiences and their impact on her. 

Suggested Solutions

  • Recognize that a survivor may need to avoid head motion in one direction or another, avoid looking up, or may have to turn her whole body to position for conversation.
  • Making the time to hear a woman with reduced reaction time offers reassuring support that will help the survivor to recognize the validity of her own experiences and ensure that critical communications are successful.
  • If a person has persistent weakness, accessing aspects of her memory becomes difficult. Jane Doe, Inc. recommends a strategy for helping a woman to remember the order of events: use cues based on her usual daily routines such as patterns of sunlight, TV programs, internet habits, cooking times. These may trigger her memory for when certain things occurred.