Mental Health First Aid™ for Deaf communities: responses to a lack of national Deaf mental health service provision
Abstract
Purpose
For over 15 years, Mental Health First Aid™ (MHFA) has successfully been delivered in Wales, United Kingdom, with growing interest in the MHFA programme and increasing course attendees. Trainers, aware of the need for support, know the importance of MHFA being accessible for different communities and learner groups. MHFA has always focused on increasing mental health literacy. One marginalised group, with lower mental health literacy than the general population, is Deaf people, a group with increased risk of mental health problems. This paper aims to provide insights about why Deaf people are twice as likely as hearing people to experience mental health problems.
Design/methodology/approach
During this paper, the authors have used four focal points i) exploring situational contexts for Deaf people; ii) reasons why Deaf individuals are at greater risk of mental health problems; iii) the authors explore a project, “Hear Deaf”, and implementation of MHFA Wales by Deaf MHFA trainers; and iv) initiatives to influence and impact on policymakers.
Findings
During the project, nine MHFA courses were delivered to Deaf communities across different locations in Wales, often with information and advertisements circulated directly to Deaf communities through Deaf clubs, resulting in 120 Deaf people trained. The authors conclude with their own reflections as a researcher and an MHFA who work predominantly with Deaf communities.
Originality/value
This paper provides a discussion on the specific risks for Deaf people around mental health and the importance of mental health promotion programmes for Deaf communities. Further research is needed regarding the impact of MHFA on Deaf populations.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Roger Hewitt for his comments on an early version of this paper.
In this paper, the authors are using the term Deaf with a capital D as an all-inclusive term to include those who identify as culturally Deaf, who may use a signed language, as well as those who are hard of hearing.
Citation
Terry, J. and Robins-Talbot, C. (2024), "Mental Health First Aid™ for Deaf communities: responses to a lack of national Deaf mental health service provision", Journal of Public Mental Health, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-12-2023-0107
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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