Deaf Awareness in Mental Health
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The incidence of mental health problems in the Deaf population is reported to be 40%, compared to 25% in the general population.
The precise figures are reportedly debatable; however there is no doubt that there is a higher incidence of mental health problems among Deaf people when compared to the hearing population.
There are currently three major NHS specialist in-patient services that provide mental health services to Deaf people with severe or complex mental health problems, one in London, Birmingham and Manchester. In addition there are two other private sector services, both situated in the North West Region of the country.
Whilst research into forensic mental health men who are deaf is limited, research carried out in 2001 by Young et al concluded that a continued area of need was the provision of forensic medium secure facilities for deaf mentally disordered offenders. In 2007 Dent wrote in the Health Service Journal that specialised services were “almost non-existent” and that the NHS provision for inpatient beds was still limited to fifty beds in total.
It is a part of St Andrew’s Healthcare strategic aims to develop secure mental health men’s in-patient treatment pathway for this client group and that the geographical positioning in Northampton will serve well in providing services to those in the south of the country. To drive this development we have established a Deaf Service Project Group which draws on the forensic mental health expertise of the organisation, as well as engaged in a partnership arrangement with SignHealth, ( http://www.signhealth.org.uk/ ) and Deaf Connect, ( http://www.deafconnect.org.uk/ ).
With a projected opening of our new medium secure building scheduled for October 2010 there remains much work to be completed in preparing the organisation and its workforce for this significant cultural change. Already we have begun Deaf Awareness training, with in excess of 130 staff attending so far. We have thirty-two staff, from various services across the organisation undergoing BSL Level One training, with further cohorts of training scheduled for May and September this year. We will be shortly arranging regular opportunities for those training in BSL and those interested in deafness to come together on a weekly informal basis to practice their communication skills as well as find out more about what we are doing. This invitation will involve members of the local community, both hearing and D/deaf who we are encouraging to help us in our goals.
When it comes to opening and delivering high quality mental health services for D/deaf men, our intention is to employ at least 50% of the staff being people who are deaf. This will of course require adjustments to much of the way the organisation thinks and engages with people. For example; the delivery of training; distribution of information; conducting meetings and simple communication techniques to name but a few. To help us with this, as well as the organisations mentioned above we have been fortunate to secure the services of two individuals who have an extensive career history in influencing the national deaf service agenda, and who are Deaf.
We have completed a recent survey of our current patients within St Andrew’s Healthcare to clearly determine what the current population’s hearing requirements are. This has resulted in posing a few interesting questions, as well as allowing us to consider how we currently meet these people’s hearing needs.
There is much to tell people about both inside and outside the organisation. To that end we are planning and preparing to present some of our work at national and local events, one of which will be the British Society for Mental Health & Deafness conference in early June this year.
The first week in May is national Deaf awareness week and we would encourage people to find out more about what we are doing, planning and thinking about as we continue on this fascinating and challenging journey of service development.
Colin Doyle, Clinical Service Development Manager
References:
Dent E, (2007), Sounding Off, Health Service Journal, July 19 2007, P22 - 24
DOH, (2005), Mental Health and Deafness, Towards Equity and Access, NIMHIE. HMSO
North East Commissioning Team for Learning Disabilities & Mental Health, (2008), Deaf mental health services: A guide to commissioning, http://www.deafcommissioning.co.uk/node/26
Young A, Howarth P, Ridgeway S & Monteiro B, (2001), Forensic referrals to the three specialist psychiatric units for deaf people in the UK, Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, Vol 12, No 1, P19 - 35