Liam O’Dell: The deaf mental health crisis cannot be ignored this Mental Health Awareness Week

When I think about deaf mental health this Mental Health Awareness Week, I cast my mind back to last year, when I saw Deafinitely Theatre’s production of the play, 4.48 Psychosis – a script tackling some heavy but important themes around mental health from the perspective of deaf people.

More recently, I think about the Parliamentary debate held by Newcastle MP Catherine McKinnell on the topic of access to NHS services for British Sign Language users.

In a excellent opening speech, Ms McKinnell raised issues such as the lack of legal status for British Sign Language in the UK and the adequacy of the Equality Act. The MP also mentioned The Limping Chicken‘s investigation into emergency BSL provision last year.

“Does the Minister really think it is appropriate to expect adult BSL users to have continually to rely on friends and family—often their parents—to access healthcare and treatment or to discuss private medical information?

“Is it really acceptable for BSL users to have continually to challenge, demand and fight for access to NHS services that most of us take for granted, or to face delays to their treatment because their communication needs simply have not been recognised and met?

“That is not a situation that any of us would tolerate, so why on earth should deaf people have to do so in 2019, almost a decade after the Equality Act became law,” the Labour politician said in the conclusion to her opening speech.

In response to comments raised by Ms McKinnell and others on the topic of legislation, Health Minister Seema Kennedy MP said that the Government considers current legislation to be “sufficient”, but added that “the challenges raised by honourable members today mean that I will look carefully at what more we can do to communicate obligations under existing legislation to individual NHS trusts”.

Yet when I hear stories about the crises deaf people find themselves in as a result of a lack of accessible healthcare, I’m inclined to think that the legislation available to deaf and disabled people today is far from suitable.

The Equality Act 2010 fails to protect deaf people from discrimination, to the extent that a ‘name and shame’ approach on social media has now become the most effective way for individuals to receive the service they’re entitled to without the burden of launching a legal case.

Meanwhile, when deaf people are pleading for accessible communication support – not least in healthcare – surely a piece of legislation which affords them that right is a practical and logical suggestion?

While this is in no way a criticism of the fantastic work that the National Health Service does, we see instances where a notice period is required to book an interpreter in a hospital when medical complaints and emergencies can be random and unpredictable. In some cases, families and friends have to interpret for a deaf patient, passing on unnecessarily emotional and psychological stress onto others.

This Mental Health Awareness Week, we should commend the work of organisations such as SignHealth for providing invaluable health resources and information to deaf people, and Deaf4Deaf for their work on providing services, but we must also continue to highlight the detrimental impact that a lack of communication support can have – not only in healthcare, but in education and employment too. Especially when an all three areas are affected by our mental health.

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Update: Following a couple of discussions online with readers of this article, it’s also worth noting that the NHS already does provide some mental health services for deaf people, including in places such as South London, Birmingham and Manchester. However, it’s important that this specialist support for all deaf people receives more promotion and is provided across the whole of the UK. At the heart of this lies an issue with accessibility, availability and communication.

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Photo by Ollie Cole.

Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and blogger from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and makes the occasional video about deaf awareness on his YouTube channel. He can also be found talking about disability, politics, theatre, books and music on his Twitter, and on his website.