Provision of mental health care services to deaf individuals using telehealth.

Abstract

The deaf population has traditionally been marginalized and underserved when it comes to mental health services. The inequity is partly due to a general lack of knowledge about hearing loss and a shortage of linguistically and culturally qualified clinicians in most parts of the United States. Providing access to qualified clinicians via video conferencing technology has been proposed as a possible solution to the inequity problem. This article describes the unique characteristics of the deaf community, explores the benefits and challenges in using telehealth with the deaf population, and discusses current research in this area. The main goal of this article is to educate mental health professionals, stakeholders, and admin istrators regarding an underutilized videophone infrastructure that exists for the deaf population. The authors also emphasize the need for further research to better understand and service the unique mental health needs of deaf individuals.

Signs and barriers: Play therapy training experiences of deaf and hearing clinicians.

“…Nevertheless, breaking through these barriers for preservice and professional clinicians may shed light on how to better serve deaf and hard-of-hearing clients in the mental health field. Current research suggests that this may be changing because of technological advances in telehealth (Altvater, Singer, & Gil, 2017; Wilson & Schild, 2014). Furthermore, interpreting expenses were noted as a barrier to appropriate play therapy training.…”

Interprofessional telebehavioral health competencies framework: Implications for telepsychology.

“…It is possible that a more diverse group of representative practitioners, including those in non-U.S. countries, will be needed to address the entire range of factors of relevance. Additional investigation is also warranted in how accessibility issues must be addressed with individuals with disabilities, such as deaf/hard-of-hearing individuals (Wilson & Schild, 2014).The TBH competencies also could be further developed to include the need to implement, evaluate, and link them to quality-of-care outcomes. In addition, using a separate Delphi group (de Villiers et al, 2005) could perhaps yield other competencies.…”

Design suggestions for an mHealth app to facilitate communication between pharmacists and the Deaf: perspective of the Deaf community (HEARD Project)

“…Contrary to TTY, video relay services (VRS) use sign language interpreters (SLIs) as relay operators to assist communication between the Deaf and hearing person on a computer screen through linked video cameras (1). TTY and VRS, while effective, result in prolonged communication time (12), and require skilled manpower (13). Table 1 provides further details on tools used by the Deaf to communicate, as well as Deaf-related terms.…”