Deafness and Mental Health...   some research.....

Do Deaf people hear voices?

Hallucinations - stories from Deaf people

Treatment....

A research project in Queensland by Briffa (2001) found that some Deaf people who have a mental illness missed out on early treatment because they:

•  were frightened to go to the doctor or the hospital

•  did not realise they were not well

•  finished visiting the doctor, but the doctor thought they had problems because they were Deaf

•  finished visiting the doctor without an interpreter, so they could not communicate well with the doctor

Access to appropriate treatment and support services for deaf clients is essential
to ethical care. This means raising awareness of the deaf community culture for hearing people, and, providing accessible information on mental health to deaf and hearing impaired people.

There is also a need to raise awareness within both the deaf and hearing impaired communities on mental health because historically, people haven't had access to the range of information hearing people have.

Because deaf clients have not had access to interpreters in treatment and assessment situations misunderstanding and miscommunication has been common.

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