Coronavirus: Deaf mental health provision during the crisis

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, The Limping Chicken has been hearing from different members of the Deaf community about how the outbreak has affected them.

This week, Liam speaks to deaf mental health charities about the psychological impact the crisis can have on Deaf people.

 “I think one of the ironies is that there’s so much talk in mainstream media about the challenges of isolation and the challenges of being separated from your community, from your peers and so on,” James Watson-O’Neill, Chief Executive of deaf health charity SignHealth tells me on a video call. “Of course, that’s what deaf people face all the time, every day of their lives.

“We know that deaf people are twice as likely to experience poor mental health as hearing people, and that’s for an enormously wide range of reasons,” he explains. “I think the challenges for us at SignHealth is to make sure that there are some services in place to support the community.”

Our conversation comes a day after the UK Government released new mental health guidance for the public during the outbreak, with advice including contacting friends and family via video calls or social media and picking up a new hobby.

Yvonne Doyle, Medical Director at Public Health England, said: “We should continue to check up on friends, family and neighbours by phone or online and pursue the activities we are able to do from home and in line with guidance.

“By adopting a new routine, setting goals, eating healthily and maintaining physical activity, we can stay in good mental health today and tomorrow.”

It’s advice which James says is based on good science and trying to have a digestible approach to mental health.

“So there’s lots of tools around taking a quiz and getting a sort of semi-personalised idea of what you should be doing to manage your mental health challenges,” he explains. “The difficulty is that not all of the content is accessible, and that’s a real frustration for me and for SignHealth because there is no real reason for that, it just hasn’t been thought about properly.

“So I am in touch with [the Government], and I’m reminding them of their need to make sure that it is more inclusive.

“One of the things we want to see is just greater access, whether that’s by text at the very least, or instant messaging, but we want to see more BSL support available for Deaf people.”

James says a big part of the tone of these conversations is the fact that, in the time of a pandemic, the Government is moving in a fast-paced environment. “Finding or having conversations about things that might happen in a week or two weeks’ time is really challenging for them.

“It’s also, I think, difficult because whilst there is goodwill, and the desire to get this right, there’s often a bureaucracy – a lot of working – that is designed for normal everyday life rather than pandemic life,” he continues. “So there’ll be long sign-off processes or complicated ways of getting things approved, that just don’t feel quite right for the current climate that haven’t been altered.”

SignHealth’s therapy has moved to be completely online.

“We’re supporting people predominantly who have significant mental health needs,” James says, “so we’re all keen to make sure that as people who, like all of us, have to stay at home, how do we make sure that people’s mental health is as good as it can possibly be? That people are supported to still have a good day and think about what they can do in their day to be positive and feel like they’re not just trapped inside.

With the UK entering its second week of a lockdown, the Government has already acknowledged “the unprecedented challenges” posed by “extended periods of self-isolation”.

While James tells me it’s too early to tell at this stage, he adds that the early signs are that SignHealth is seeing an increase in referrals since the crisis began.

“We are optimistic that the NHS will be supportive of approving funding for our services in this difficult time,” he says. “So we’ve seen a couple of CCGs [Clinical Commissioning Groups] who would normally look at every single funding request separately. They have told us, given the current circumstances, they’re willing to approve those funding requests in a more routine way that they might normally be.

“So we’re hoping that that is a positive signal that we’ll see similar from other CCGs.”

Although things do continue to be uncertain, deaf charities have grouped together during the crisis, with James praising the sector coming together in a recent meeting of the UK Council on Deafness (UKCOD).

“The UK Council on Deafness is a very small charity,” he explains. “It’s tiny, so it has very limited resources, but we’re looking at other ways that UKCOD could look to become a kind of hub of information that deaf people are putting together, so that as a deaf person, you can go to one place and find the stuff you need.

“We’re hoping that might happen in the next 10 days or so.”

Another member of the UK Council of Deafness is the Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD), who when asked about their mental health support, told The Limping Chicken: “We recognise that with so much negativity and enforced separation from our friends and loved ones, there is a growing impact on the mental health and wellbeing of everyone.

“It is for this reason that we have launched a #StayHome daily programme of activities; delivered by RAD and the wider Deaf Community.”

The weekly timetable on the charity’s Facebook page features keep fit sessions and BSL storytelling, with mindfulness and wellbeing resources released every Wednesday.

Earlier this month the Deaf counselling service Deaf4Deaf, which recently entered a partnership with RAD, told clients on social media that they will continue to work with them as the current situation continues.

“You will be informed by email or text 24 hours before the session starts if one of our team therapists falls ill,” they said.

When asked about SignHealth’s advice for deaf people feeling isolated or anxious during the coronavirus pandemic, James says it would be to talk to a friend or partner about it, or try and get some help.

“Don’t just assume you’ll feel better,” he explains. “It’s good to talk, and there are a number of services that we provide that can help, like our crisis text line if you really are in crisis, the therapy service – if you want to self-refer to that service you can do.

“There are lots of other people in the community offering services or offering support online. There’s some stuff that’s been set up as a result of coronavirus that people can take advantage of, but most importantly, do take the feelings you have seriously and talk about them, talk about them to somebody and share them.”

If you need any mental health help and advice, you can contact the crisis text line by texting DEAF to 85258. Messages are confidential and free on the EE, O2, Three and Vodafone networks.

More information and support is also available on SignHealth and Deaf4Deaf’s websites.

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By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and blogger from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.

Read the first two reports in this series, on the concerns raised by British Sign Language interpreters and deaf university students, online now.