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Deaf People: Mental Illness


"Do you see how I feel like I'm on the fence, like I'm pretending to fit into both worlds and not feeling that I fit into anything?"


-- Shane Spurlock, a deaf man who killed himself in 2005
(Beckner, 2006)

 

 

Reference:
(Beckner, Chrisanne, Thursday, June 08, 2006) "Can You Hear Me Now?" Sacramento News and Review. Retrieved 6/20/2006 <http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=oid%3A60673>


 

Mental Illness in the Deaf Community:

Increasing Awareness and Identifying Needs

 

By Sandra Mueller, LCSW

October, 2006

 

Various pieces of literature highlight the inadequacy of Mental Health services for deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States.  Tragically, many mental health providers mistake normal adjustment, cultural, language and communication issues for developmental delays, mental illness or mental retardation.  Therefore, in order for clinicians to decrease the risk of misdiagnosing or worse not detecting mental illness in deaf persons some key factors will be addressed.  These factors will further highlight an understanding into the realities faced by deaf persons living with mental illness.

 

Incidence/Prevalence

To understand the prevalence of mental illness in the deaf community, several common statistics were found.  The prevalence of mental illness among deaf people is at least as high as in the population at large (UCSF, 2004).  Furthermore, findings reveal that the rate of Axis I mental health disorders does not differ between hearing and deaf populations, but Axis II and childhood behavior problems are three to six times more prevalent for deaf persons.  Deaf children and adolescents exhibit higher levels of behavioral and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders then the general population (Haskins 2000 & Chritchfield, 2002).  The prevalence of mental health issues in the deaf community is as significant as in the population at large, thus, emphasizing the need to examine the some unique factors impacting deaf people living with mental illness.

 

Presentation of Mental Illness

Language

Deaf people depend on gestures and body language to communicate.  Thus, behavior which may appear overly animated may reflect a style of communication rather than an agitated state. English is often considered a second language for a culturally deaf person and when sign language is put into written form it can appear fragmented, concrete or confusing to a mental health clinician who is not a part of the deaf community. Therefore, distinguishing language limitations from confusion or thought disturbance is a complex clinical challenge.

            A recent study conducted in a specialty deaf inpatient psychiatric unit found that 75% of deaf individuals were non-fluent in American Sign Language (Black & Glickman, 2006).  This finding may result from the fact that 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents and these children may not have received any usable language input during critical language acquisition periods of brain development.  Lacking language input during a child's earliest years and the underdevelopment of a formal language system can result in an adult without fluency or competence in any language, including ASL (Sacks, 1989).

Possession of a language system is necessary to facilitate abstract thinking.  Without such a system some persons who are deaf may lack the ability to think abstractly or to generalize concepts.  To further compound the issue, the average deaf adult reads English at a fourth grade level (Haskins, 2000).  Differentiating between a language system attributed to neurological or psychiatric illness rather than social or experiential origins is extremely difficult for a diagnosing therapist.  Misdiagnosing non-fluent (but otherwise healthy) deaf individuals (as psychotic) is not a new phenomenon.  But what may be equally common are deaf individuals who are psychotic but whose illness is overlooked by clinicians who attribute symptoms to poor interpretation, deafness, or minimal language skills (Pollard, 2005).

How then are abstract English concepts such as "delusion" or "hallucination" to be explained or understood by a mentally ill deaf person? Standard psychiatric questions are very abstract and for a deaf person with a limited language system, these questions may lead to poor assessment resulting in barriers to treatment and ongoing appropriate intervention. 

Psychosis

Deaf people who are psychotic can display disorders of thought form and or thought content.  Disorders of thought content can be diagnosed by asking concrete questions (i.e.: are people following them, or is someone stealing their thoughts).  Thought form disorders are more difficult to diagnose.  Such disorders can include loose associations, flight of ideas, incoherence, tangentially and fragmentation (Haskins, 2000).  One must consider that the ability to determine a thought disturbance can be compounded when a deaf person may have a limited language system.

Deaf people experiencing psychosis may have auditory hallucinations, such as hearing voices.  This is noted to be possible even if they have been deaf from birth.  Research conducted in a mental health setting revealed that 59% of deaf patients were able to give accounts of verbal auditory hallucinations (Briffa, 1999).  Additionally, deaf people may also experience visual hallucinations described as seeing signing; such as Jesus signing or an image signing to them (Haskins, 2000).  These scenarios highlight the importance of having a diagnostic tool to effectively assess psychosis in deaf patients.  This need was highlighted in a lawsuit stemming from two murders that took place at Gallaudet University in 2000-2001.  The case required accurate knowledge of the deaf defendant's psychotic symptoms.  The expert witness in the case was unable to explain the process for determining psychosis in deaf vs. hearing people as there was no such tool for making this type of assessment.  As a result, a serious gap in mental health assessment was identified.  Research and the development of a rating scale are currently in process at the University Rochester Medical Center and are expected to be completed in 2010 (Pollard, 2005).

Standards of care for mental health services to deaf and hard of hearing persons have been established (Myers, 1995).  However, several studies continue to highlight problems with misdiagnosis; denial of appropriate services; lack of sustainable resources for clients; lack of appropriate medical care (assessment and treatment) and significant language and communication barriers.  Several well documented ADA lawsuits reveal that it is not uncommon for deaf persons to have experienced forced hospitalizations, medication, etc. (Haskins, 2004 & Steinberg, Sullivan & Loew, 1998).

The reality is that deaf persons suffering from mental illness are at great risk of not receiving adequate treatment or may not be treated at all for milder, but still devastating mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.  A lack of knowledge and effective tools leads to poor assessment and misdiagnosis of deaf persons with mental health needs.  Valid detection and assessment of psychosis in deaf individuals and effective tools to assess risk related factors is a serious inequity in mental health services. 

 

Diagnosis & Treatment

Historically, there were a variety of psychiatric myths about deaf people.  One such myth was that deaf people could not suffer depression, as they didn't have enough of a superego to rise to the level of obsessional defenses (Altshuler, 1971).  Psychiatry and research have evolved over the years and there are many recent case studies and research that dispute this way of thinking.  Recent studies indicate a broader range of diagnosis of mental illness than in the past.  Posttraumatic stress disorder is noted as being the most common diagnosis found in the deaf community.  The study further revealed that deaf patients were less likely to be diagnosed with a psychotic or substance abuse disorder and more likely to be diagnosed with a mood, anxiety, personality, or developmental disorder.  Furthermore, deaf patients presented at higher risks than hearing patients in areas of self-harm and risk of sexual offending (Black & Glickman, 2006).   Acknowledgement that the deaf community struggles with significant mental health needs is noted.  However, what remains is that professionals often have limited knowledge of deafness or deaf culture which seriously impacts their ability to accurately assess and intervene. 

Oftentimes a person who is deaf or hard of hearing may enter the mental health system in the absence of severe mental illness.  While the general population can be commonly treated for many mental health issues through private therapy, deaf or hard of hearing individuals have limited access to such services.  This is due to that lack of communicative access.  For example, mental health professionals are not skilled to effectively communicate with the deaf and oftentimes times there is an unwillingness for the private sector to provide a communicative resource (e.g. interpreters) (Myers, 1995).

Specialized psychiatric units which provide service to deaf people are uncommon in the United States.  Many States do not have specialized services for persons who are deaf or a resource database available to deaf persons (Haskins, 2004).  Offering services to psychiatric patients who are deaf, especially to persons who lack full language competency, requires clinicians to know sign language as well as the deaf culture.  The ability to communicate is at the heart of good mental health.  Deaf people face greater obstacles in establishing good communication with the mental health community and with most mental health services available.  Without appropriate communication it will adversely affect the ability for deaf people to recover from mental health problems.

 

Conclusion

It is well known that mental health is generally under funded and socially marginalized across the country.  Many specialized services have developed out of a critical incident that may or may not have resulted in a lawsuit.  There continues to be a need for a milieu that includes interpretation and a strong understanding of deaf culture and language issues.  Ongoing advocacy for mental health settings to become skilled in the diagnostic, cultural and language needs of deaf people will increase accuracy in diagnosis and enable better treatment planning for all deaf persons served.

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Altshuler, K.Z. (1971), Studies of the deaf: relevance to psychiatric theory.  American Journal of Psychiatry 127 (11): 1521-1526.

 

Black, P. & Glickman, N.S. (2006).  Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.  11(3): 303-321.

 

Briffa, D. (1999).  Hallucinations in Deaf People with mental illness: lessons from the Deaf Client.  Retrieved 09, Sept. 2006.  (www.qds.org.au/mentalhealth)

 

Chritchfield, A.B. (2002).  Cultural Diversity Series:  Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Persons who are Deaf.  National Technical Assistance Center for State Mental Health Planning.

 

Haskins, B. M.D., Serving and Assessing Deaf Patients:  Implications for Psychiatry.  Psychiatric Times.  December 2000, Vol. XVII, Issue 12).

 

Myers, R.R. (Ed.), (1995).  Standards of care for the delivery of mental health services to hard of hearing people.  Silver Spring:  National Association of the Deaf.

 

Pollard, R. (2005).  Psychological testing studies: psychosis symptom rating scale.  Deaf Health Task Force.  University of Rochester School of Medicine.

 

Sacks, O. (1989).  Seeing voices:  A Journey into the World of the Deaf.  Berkeley, California:   University of California Press.

 

Steinberg, A.G., Sullivan, V.J. & Loew, R.C. (1998).  Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to Mental Health Service Access:  The Deaf Consumer's Perspective.  American Journal of Psychiatry 155: 982-984.

 

UCSF Center on Deafness:  Preparing for Deaf Patients in a Mental Health Crisis Unit. (2004). Retrieved 24, Sept., 2006. (www.uccd.org).



Mental Illness in the Deaf Community
By Melissa Sipsy
4/6/2009

Mental Illness in the Deaf Community

The lack of specialized mental health care burdens the Deaf with an even larger disadvantage. Because of the astounding lack of specialized service, deaf individuals inflicted with mental illness face extreme difficulty finding and receiving treatment (Thomas, Cromwell, Miller, 2006). Most mental health services are not equipped to treat deaf due to a shortage of sign sufficient psychiatrists and psychologists, and the lack of highly specialized treatment facilities.

Mental illness in deaf individuals often goes undiagnosed, as there is a lack of mental health professionals who are capable of signing or adequately communicating with deaf patients (Vernon and Leigh, 2007). Contributing to this problem is a shortage of and the cost of qualified interpreters. Interpreters are a limited and costly resource that is rarely readily available (Vernon, Leigh, 2007). Without a clear line of communication, which may be provided by an interpreter, effective treatment is high unlikely.

Contributing to the difficulty of receiving treatment is the scarcity of treatment facilities for the mentally ill deaf. The vast majority of mental health treatment centers do not possess the tools or equipment necessary to treat deaf patients. Until recently, deaf patients were housed with hearing patients, and were treated by staff who could not sign, leaving them essentially isolated (Vernon, Leigh, 2007). The ill placement of deaf psychiatric patients in a psychiatric ward without any means of communication is alarming for the patient, and is seen as abusive to some psychiatrists. Vernon and Leigh compare housing deaf psychiatric patients with hearing psychiatric patients to housing English psychiatric patients in a hospital in a foreign country, where none of the staff spoke English.

Though they are limited, there are some psychiatric facilities that specialize in treating deaf patients, such as the National Deaf Academy's treatment center, which opened in 2000. The center is staffed entirely with psychologists that can sign, with more than half of the staff being deaf themselves (Vernon, Leigh, 2007). There has also been research that suggests there might be benefits to founding psychosocial rehabilitation centers for severely mentally ill deaf patients. A study by Cook, Graham and Razzano (1993) suggests that severely mentally ill deaf patients can increase their residential independence by participating in a psychosocial rehabilitation program that focuses on managing symptoms, and developing independent and community living skills. The center studied by Cook, Graham and Razzano was employed by the patients' peers, sixty five percent of the staff was deaf, and all employees were fluent in sign language. Peers were hired to provide patients with deaf role models that they could emulate, where as before they had only hearing role models. This allowed patients to see their own potential as defined by the deaf community (Cook et al., 1993).

The scarcity of treatments for the mentally ill deaf, perhaps one of the least represented minorities, is burdensome and disadvantageous to the deaf community. The lack of qualified mental health professionals combined with the shortage of specialized treatment centers makes recovery for the mentally ill deaf patient seem almost impossible.

Sources:

Thomas, C., Cromwell, J., Miller, H. 2006. Community Mental Health Teams' perspectives on providing care for Deaf people with severe mental illness. Journal of Mental Health. 15. 301-303.

Vernon, M.C., Leigh, I. W. 2007. Mental health services for people who are Deaf. American Annals of the Deaf. 152. 374-381.

Cook, J.A., Graham, K.K., Razzano, L. 1993. Psychosocial rehabilitation of Deaf persons with severe mental illness: a multivariate model of residential outcomes. Rehabilitation Psychology. 38. 261-274.


Notes:

In a message dated 11/14/2009 8:31:36 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, "Dolphin" writes:
I'm looking into going into private counseling instead of school counseling (which I currently do) and I hear there is a great need for counselors who can provide services for the Deaf community. Is this true?
-- Dolphin

Dear Dolphin,
In regard to your question: Is there strong need for counselors in the Deaf Community? My answer is "yes and no." The answer is yes in the sense that there are many Deaf whom could use counseling. I say "no" in the sense of viable job openings. If you are considering pursuing training to become a counselor I think you should start with the end in mind. Pretend you "already have" an MSW, plus pretend you already have additional training in counseling Deaf people. Next pretend you are looking for a job. Go ahead and look around for real job openings that you would be interested in at a rate of pay that you would be satisfied with. Note: If you are passionate about the idea, then go for it and to heck with what anyone tells you. If you have to you could always just counsel "Hearing people" most of the time and then counsel Deaf people as the need arises.
--Dr. Bill

Dolphin,
Ha!  I just re-read your email.
My earlier advice was geared to an undergrad - level student.
Now (upon second reading) I note that you are already a counselor.
That means the real consideration is "can you make a living at" this?
If I were you, I'd start doing it "on the side" and build up a clientele.
I'd also save up some money (a cushion).
Then I'd make the leap, quit my day job, and go whole hog into private practice.
Make sure you have details regarding "health insurance" etc. worked out before you cut the umbilical cord.
Another approach is to find a position (rare) that provides "benefits" for part time work, and then work part time for an employer and the rest of the time for yourself.
-- Dr. Bill
 

Also see: "Mental Illness and the Deaf"



 


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