Journal Article

Capitalizing on Community Resources to Build Specialized Behavioral Health Services Together with Persons who are Deaf, Deafblind or Hard of Hearing

Pollard, Robert Q., Mathos, Kimberly K.

2016

Overview

There are relatively few counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers who specialize in serving people who are Deaf, Deafblind or hard of hearing in the United States. Professionals that serve minority populations are often an insular group. They tend to network most often with fellow professionals who understand the language and cultural needs of their service population. Such specialized behavioral health providers rarely have the opportunity to interface with “mainstream” program planners, funders and administrators. Consequently, new recovery agendas, best practice models and community reintegration ideas are only slowly integrated into the care of persons who are Deaf, Deafblind or hard of hearing. We describe the development and implementation of a task force comprised of “front line” providers, administrators, county government officials, advocates and consumers that has made strides toward effective change in a local behavioral health care system. Methods employed, successes, barriers and other reflections on the task force’s efforts also are described.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Administrators / Advisory Committees / Advocacy services / Attitude to Health / Behavior change / Best practice / Blindness / Community / Community and Environmental Psychology / Community Mental Health Services - methods / Community resources / Community-Institutional Relations / Constraints / Consumers / Counties / Deaf-Blind Disorders / Deafblind / Deafness / Demographics / Drug abuse / Focus Groups / Government agencies / Health Behavior / Health services / Health Services Accessibility / Health Services Needs and Demand - organization & administration / Hearing / Hearing impairment / Hearing loss / Hearing Loss - psychology / Humans / Interprofessional Relations / Libraries / Local government / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Mental disorders / Mental health / Mental health care / Mental health services / Minority & ethnic groups / Minority groups / Needs / Original Paper / Pennsylvania / People with disabilities / Population / Professionals / Program Development / Psychiatrists / Psychiatry / Psychologists / Public officials / Recovery / Rehabilitation / Reintegration / Sign language / Social Support / Social workers / Task forces