Language Deprivation And Deaf Mental Health

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.

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.

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.

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. --

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.

This is an introductory text to mental health and deaf people for care workers and mental health workers, both those familiar with deaf people but not with mental health and those familiar with mental health but not with deaf people. The first section, Assessment, includes topics ranging from child and adolescent psychiatry, adult psychiatry, children who are deaf and have multiple disabilities, addictive behaviour and deafness, to maltreatment of deaf children. The second section, Management and Intervention, discusses subjects which include: interpreters in mental health settings, educational interventions, family therapy and drug treatments.

How children acquire a sign language and the stages of sign language development are extremely important topics in sign linguistics and deaf education, with studies in this field enabling assessment of an individual child’s communicative skills in comparison to others. In order to do research in this area it is important to use the right methodological tools. The contributions to this volume address issues covering the basics of doing sign acquisition research, the use of assessment tools, problems of transcription, analyzing narratives and carrying out interaction studies. It serves as an ideal reference source for any researcher or student of sign languages who is planning to do such work. This volume was originally published as a Special Issue of Sign Language & Linguistics 8:1/2 (2005)

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.