Deaf adults and children, like their hearing counterparts, experience a full range of mental health problems. They develop psychoses, sink into deep depressions, abuse alcohol and drugs, commit sexual offenses, or simply have trouble adjusting to new life situations. But when a deaf client appears on the doorstep of an ordinary hospital, residential facility, clinic, or office, panic often ensues. Mental Health Care of Deaf People: A Culturally Affirmative Approach, offers much-needed help to clinical and counseling psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and other mental health professionals--and to their program administrators. The editors, a psychologist and a psychiatrist, and the authors, leading authorities with a variety of expertises, systematically review the special needs of deaf patients, particularly those who regard themselves as "culturally Deaf," and provide professionals with the tools they need to meet those needs. Among these tools is an extensive "library" of pictorial questionnaires and information sheets developed by one of the very few psychiatric units in the country devoted to the deaf. These handouts greatly simplify the processes involved in the diagnosis and treatment of people who in many cases are not good readers--for example, explaining medication and inquiring about side-effects. The handouts are reproduced on downloadable resources, to enable purchasers to print out and use copies in their work. This comprehensive clinical guide and its accompanying downloadable resources constitute vital resources for all those who seek to provide sensitive, effective mental health care to deaf people.

This volume presents a state of the art account of the clinical specialty of mental health care of deaf people. Drawing upon some of the leading clinicians, teachers, administrators, and researchers in this field from the United States and Great Britain, it addresses critical issues from this specialty such as Deaf/hearing cross cultural dynamics as they impact treatment organizations Clinical and interpreting work with deaf persons with widely varying language abilities Adaptations of best practices in inpatient, residential, trauma, and substance abuse treatment for deaf persons Overcoming administrative barriers to establishing statewide continua of care University training of clinical specialists The interplay of clinical and forensic responses to deaf people who commit crimes An agenda of priorities for Deaf mental health research Each chapter contains numerous clinical case studies and places a heavy emphasis on providing practical intervention strategies in an interesting, easy to read style. All mental health professionals who work with deaf individuals will find this to be an invaluable resource for creating and maintaining culturally affirmative treatment with this population.

Language Deprivation and Deaf Mental Health explores the impact of the language deprivation that some deaf individuals experience by not being provided fully accessible language exposure during childhood. Leading experts in Deaf mental health care discuss the implications of language deprivation for a person’s development, communication, cognitive abilities, behavior, and mental health. Beginning with a groundbreaking discussion of language deprivation syndrome, the chapters address the challenges of psychotherapy, interpreting, communication and forensic assessment, language and communication development with language-deprived persons, as well as whether cochlear implantation means deaf children should not receive rich sign language exposure. The book concludes with a discussion of the most effective advocacy strategies to prevent language deprivation. These issues, which draw on both cultural and disability perspectives, are central to the emerging clinical specialty of Deaf mental health.

The assessment and treatment of mental health concerns for Deaf individuals has been largely ignored and/or misunderstood by many mental health professionals. In Mental Health and Deafness, Margaret du Feu and Cathy Chovaz seek to rectify this by outlining current issues surrounding mental health and deafness. The book provides valuable information to professionals interested in expanding their knowledge of mental health and deafness, and the authors share their extensive clinical experience with the reader through a variety of case studies. The authors primarily focus on individuals who were born deaf or deafened early in life, but also describe the mental health aspects of acquired deafness and individuals with both deafness and blindness. Mental Health and Deafness begins by describing the historical and social context of deafness, and follows the life journey of a Deaf individual, focusing on parental reactions, language acquisition, and mental health disorders of children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. Chapters cover relevant issues regarding assessment, treatment, and forensic and legal issues. The book concludes with an overview of service development.

The needs of deaf and hearing people with limited functioning can be a challenge for the mental health practitioner to meet. This text provides concrete guidance for adapting best practices in cognitive-behavioral therapy to deaf and hearing persons who are non- or semi-literate, and who have greatly impaired language skills or other cognitive deficits, such as mental retardation, that make it difficult for them to benefit from traditional talk- and insight-oriented psychotherapies. --

This book discusses the importance of culture and diversity within society through multicultural, cross-cultural, and intercultural encounters while applying psychological effectiveness to manage core competencies. It carefully explains how influential the social environment is to an individual within a society. It seeks to directly affect mental health practitioners’ treatment within practices in accordance to specific ethno-cultural clients; and it seeks to encourage students and practitioners to practice acceptance of diverse groups and multiracial communities. Although understanding various cultural norms and accepting diversity is not always simple, the book promotes a global understanding through identifying cultural benefits within a multiracial, multi-ethnic society, while evoking culturally competent techniques for mental health practitioners.

The impetus for this volume is the growing awareness within the mental health and larger community of a culturally affirmative model for understanding and assisting deaf people. In contrast to the "medical-pathological" model which treats deafness as a disability, the "cultural" model guides us to view deaf persons in relation to the deaf community--a group of people with a common language, culture, and collective identity. A primary tenant of culturally affirmative psychotherapy is to understand and respect such differences, not to eradicate them. The contributors to this volume present a practical and realistic model of providing culturally affirmative counseling and psychotherapy for deaf people. The three dimensions of this model have been delineated by the multicultural counseling literature. These dimensions assert that culturally affirmative psychotherapy with deaf persons requires therapist self-awareness, knowledge of the deaf community/culture, and understanding of culturally-syntonic therapeutic interventions. The first to exhaustively delineate the implications of the cultural model of deafness for counseling deaf people, this book is essential reading for anyone who works in an educational or counseling capacity with the deaf. This audience includes not only psychotherapists, but also vocational, guidance and residence counselors, teachers, independent living skills specialists, interpreters, and administrators of programs for the deaf.