Deaf Community and Mental Health Care

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 Mental Health in the deaf community

The deaf community struggles daily with stigma, prejudice, and communication, but that's not all: medical studies have found that deaf people suffer from mental health issues at about twice the rate of the general population, and also have real problems accessing needed mental health services.

The mental health issues common in the deaf community include depression, anxiety and severe illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

Mental illnesses are compounded in the deaf community by difficulties communicating with care providers- many diagnostic tools depend on knowledge that's not common among those who are deaf.

In one study involving hearing-impaired individuals, some 41% said they believed that communication problems coupled with family stresses and overall prejudice could cause or contribute to suicidal depression, substance abuse or violent behaviour in some cases. 

In addition, psychiatric conditions such as mood disorders are frequently under-diagnosed in the deaf community, in large part due to communication difficulties that include:

  • few experienced interpreters between English and sign language
  • problems in translation between spoken and sign language
  • differences in how deaf people display feelings and perceive mental health

My Deaf Story: Rebecca Withey
Rebecca Withey is a deaf person who shared their story with the charity 'Signature' on deaf awareness week and it is about how exhausting being deaf is on a daily basis.                                                                                                                After a busy day chaperoning for her son's birthday she walks away for a moment and everything catches back up with her and realised that she was 'harbouring a low level of anxiety due to the responsibility and pressure felt communicating with so many hearing people.'                                                                                       She talks about how when she was younger she would be so anxious when having to speak in public locations in fear of mispronouncing or misunderstanding what was being said. That constant stress and pressure started to take its toll and eventually she started seeing a deaf specialist counsellor.                                                    The therapist told her to 'Grieve' the time she used to be able to hear in able to accept herself being deaf now.                                                                             'I was very fortunate to have such a positive experience of counselling by a deaf aware counsellor and its because of this that I heartily recommend therapy for anyone struggling with their mental health.'                                                                                                                                         

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