A mental health service for Deaf people has been forced to cut much-needed staff due to lack of funding, just as the coalition government announces ambitious plans to invest millions making mental health and physical health equal priorities.
£1.5 million has been invested in training specialist therapists working in British Sign Language, but now a programme of redundancies has begun. The demand for the service is still there, but changes to the NHS structure and commissioning mean that funding has dried up.
BSL Healthy Minds from SignHealth offers mental health therapies to Deaf people in sign language, where that is their first language.
Using a therapist fluent in sign language is cheaper than adding an interpreter into a session with a hearing therapist, and more effective too. Clear communication between therapist and patient is essential for therapy to work.
Success rates with therapy in sign language are 75%, compared to 44% for the hearing population. The service is better, cheaper, and essential.
“It is fantastic news, and really welcome, that there are plans to invest millions in making treatment for mental illness an equal priority to physical illness”, says Steve Powell, Chief Executive of The Deaf Health Charity SignHealth, “but where is the equality for Deaf people? The need for the service was accepted when the NHS funded the training of Deaf therapists using sign language. The effectiveness has been proved. Yet the change in commissioning procedures means the service is now slowing dying”.
The charity are urging the health minister Norman Lamb to take urgent action to bring real equality and save the only dedicated service for deaf people. They say that the lives of Deaf people depend on it.
pennybsl
October 10, 2014
Gulp.
We need an impact benefit statement with statistics on the efficiency of Deaf Therapists’ work with Deaf clients, and that it is progressing, saving considerable ‘seconded assisted therapy & referrals’ …..i.e. without the Deaf Therapy, implications of higher costs and lower successful outcomes in referring certain Deaf clients via the hearing sector.
Decision-makers are ignorant of equality issues and the latest updates of proactive streams of peer-matched therapy and medical support.
They need a big ‘WHAM’ visually and cognitively ASAP to recognise and support any provision like SignHealth’s.
Tim
October 10, 2014
As somebody who has used this service in the past, I would say that it is terrible that it is being denied funds.
I would bet that many Deaf people simply struggle along for ages without even seeking help because they feel that it is all impossible. Will they understand the GP? Will they understand a therapist? Will they have to travel? Etc, etc. Sign Health bats away all of these difficulties with one Deaf-tailored package solution.
As if all that is not good enough, their therapists not only bring knowledge of sign language but also an understanding of Deaf issues, culture and community. They will know about how oralism and other oppression can affect Deaf people. This is very relevant to Deaf mental health and solutions for recovery.
As Penny seems to be saying, if equality laws were working and impacts were being properly assessed, then a quality specialist service like these would have its funding protected.
Cathy
October 10, 2014
Oh crikey! What bad news this is!! The biggest problem is that deaf people are part and parcel of the wider population, so funding cuts affect all of the population, not just some of us.
Is it possible to ringfence funding for the deaf community? Am not sure it is. It would actually mean other disabled groups clamouring to have their funding ringfenced too. Can you imagine: the blind have ringfenced funding; wheelchair users have ringfenced funding; Down’s have ringfenced funding and so on!!
Such a scenario is hardly feasible is it? I know deaf groups clamour for speciality because of sign language, but lots of disabled groups could clamour for speciality too!
In an ideal world each disabled group could have their own significant amount of funding each year to meet their needs, but we dont live in that world!
So, you have to ask yourself are deaf organisations being fair? I dont think the answer is “yes”. We also need statistics, as penny mentioned to prove that deaf specialists with sign language skills are actually saving deaf peoples’ lives more than other specialist are.
The Government telling us that mental and physical health have equal priority means nothing, when, in the same breathe they cut funding! And dont forget we now have “equality” in Britain, which means we have to be equal to hearies. In other words when they lose funding so do we!!!
Kim
October 11, 2014
equality’s got nothing to do with it when the Deaf community are not even on the playing field let alone thinking it might be level. It’s not rocket science to make an assumption that someone receiving treatment in the form of ‘talkingtherapies’ in their own language ie BSL is more likely to engage, respond and benefit more so than through an interpreter or with no communication support. That is of course if you have a GP who even knows that this kind of support is available and necessary.
sashadiestal
October 13, 2014
Yes, Kim, I can easily agree with that, but BSL Healthy Minds had therapists using sign language didn’t they? As Tim says he has used the service and has sung their praises!
To this degree it means deaf people have had access to their “talking therapies”. To this end it also means that the deaf community IS on a “level playing field” with hearies. So I dont think we can quite baulk at having to be equal and be treated exactly the same as them.
Other disability groups would also surely be affected in the mental health field, so it surely looks like we are going to have to take the “rough with the smooth”.