Two bitter blows have been dealt to the Deaf community this week. The Deaf Health Charity SignHealth says “enough is enough.”
Recently, NHS England said it wanted to scrap the Clinical Reference Group on Deaf Mental Health. The following day the charity was told their bid to the Department of Health to provide online psychological therapies had been turned down.
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Celia Hulme, Campaigns Officer, said:
‘Mental health services for Deaf people are already shockingly poor. These announcements make a bad situation worse. Most Deaf people do not have access to psychological therapies on the same basis as hearing people. There is no equality. That cannot be right in 2016.’
“Today we are launching a campaign, ‘Therapy, the Deaf Way’ to demand the Government acts. We want to see a nationally commissioned psychological therapy service, which all Deaf people in England can access. We want Deaf people to have access to therapists who can sign fluently. Some ‘lucky’ Deaf people are offered a BSL/English interpreter but it is not the same. Would a hearing person really want therapy via an interpreter?”
The charity will be putting forward a proposal of its own to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health.
Celia added:
“Jeremy Hunt can no longer ignore Deaf people. He has a legal responsibility to make sure health services are delivered equitably. He is failing in his duty. He is failing Deaf people. He should know that Deaf people are twice as likely to experience depression as hearing people. And yet he and the NHS do nothing. The precious few services that do exist for Deaf people now appear to be under further attack. Enough is enough.”
SignHealth is calling on Deaf people to take a stand now, before it is too late. More information can be found on the website, www.signhealth.org.uk/campaigns/
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MW
February 16, 2016
The word lucky is unfortunate ……Some get it but not on the back of luck never mind the support from deaf orgs. ..had to experience able peer oppression and ignorance. I think a better word than lucky should be stated. sad to hear of NHS England decision but puzzled how lacking their modern thinking. to bring ALL deaf onto the table one might need to speak not just sign language but abilities.
Cathy
February 16, 2016
Oh the irony! When mental health is prominent on the news, with announcements that mental health services are about to get a boost because thousands of hearies are not getting support either!
Plenty hearing people have committed suicide due to the lack of support and pschological therapies to help alleviate their mental anguish. So it is ironic that deaf people are being denied psychological support too! What the hell is going on?
Although I know far more hearies who have committed suicide than deafies, that is only because there is a greater number of them; but how can Jeremy Hunt understand the Deaf community when he barely understands the hearing one?!
The article states: Jeremy Hunt knows that Deaf people suffer more mentally than hearing groups. I disagree. Jeremy knows absolutely nothing about the Deaf community! He cannot possibly understand, nor do other Politicians as we are such a minority group, that we end up more or less invisible to the wider world!!
I do not understand how mental health services can be cut in this way, when hearies are now getting attention through the mainstream? Am I missing something? How can an online service that is so vital, be denied?! Does it really cost that much of a bomb? No, I don’t think it does!
It is vital that Deaf health Services remain parralel to hearing services or Jeremy Hunt should be taken to court for breaking: The Equality Act 2010! For heavens sake, its time to wake up and smell the coffee!
pennybsl
February 16, 2016
The Government has not appear to halt the steamrolling of reducing Deaf needs further down the pecking / social order. In other words: Deaf people’s “Cinderella” status has gone down in freefall in the eyes of ministers and decision-makers with no regard about consequences.
The issues also impact upon Deaf people’s career development in mental health, current staffing role are now at risk, reducing direct (BSL and/or easy to follow) communication between patients/clients and staff.
Take one instance – a deaf friend who is a prison visitor to a high security prison, cannot visit without the prison providing an available interpreter for hearing guards to follow the conversation. This greatly restricts the frequency of visits.
Equality is now being degraded and abuse by decision-makers who will discover the higher costs of closing down Deaf-specific therapeutic approaches.
Those so-called “experts” are callously stamping down good inclusive practice that dedicated professionals in mental health fought for decades. Some of those heroes passed away, we mustn’t let their legacy go to waste.