Pat Dugdale

The new Wellington field office is playing its part in other developments of interest to deaf people, such as the spread of total communication and the growing importance of the Wellington Deaf Society.

It takes only a few minutes in the company of Pat Dugdale to realise that she has a mischievous sense of fun. It’s almost as if she enjoys shocking people and then watching their reaction.

Deaf people have had unfair trials through lack of interpreters telling them what is happening in courts.

Wellington has a new worker among the deaf. Pat Dugdale, profoundly deaf, has been made field officer by the New Zealand Association of the Deaf. Her job is to provide personal social service help and to liaise with organisations, welfare agencies, commercial institutions and lawyers on behalf of the deaf.

Profoundly deaf people, particularly those deaf from birth of an early age, have needs which are not being met by the existing psychiatric services and institutions, says Pat Dugdale, Field Officer for the New Zealand Association of the Deaf.