Culture and Mental Health: Exploring Challenges and

Resiliency for Diverse Communities

The California MHSA Multicultural CoalitionSeptember 30, 2015

Carlsbad, CA

The Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Community

Introduction and Definitions for DHH Community in CA

A deep rooted history and diverse culture.People from every racial, ethnic, religious and cultural

background, including African American, Asian Pacific Islander, Latina/o, LGBTQ, Native American, deaf plus (deaf plus other disabilities), deaf-blind, deaf from hearing families and deaf from deaf families.

Many value their Deaf cultural heritage, history and institutions

Strength and resiliency through a common experience on a national and global level to attain equal rights and recognition of their languages (like American Sign Language and other sign languages from countries around the world).

DemographicsQuantitative estimates of the DHH population size,

health, and mental health needs are scarce and may reflect inaccuracies in data collection.

Census data include all individuals with disabilities in one category, information on the DHH population is not disaggregated.

The Office of Deaf Access of CA estimates 3 million DHH people reside in CA.

The National Deaf Children’s Society states that 90% of deaf newborns are born to hearing families.

Participants

One participant was a DHH counselor with eight years of experience providing mental health services for the DHH community at a CA School for the Deaf.

The second participant was a clinical psychologist with over 26 years of experience working with the DHH community. She has appointments with the CA School of Professional Psychology and Gallaudet University. In addition, she is co-founder of Cultural Intersections in Oakland, CA, a non-profit community based program that offers diversity training and consultation.

Findings: Needs and Challenges

Lack of access to community resources and shortage of qualified mental health providers.

Inadequate interpreting services.

Isolation and frustration when accessing care and advocating for their needs.

“…a huge gap in feeling connected with therapy services…[DHH people] feel a huge disconnect culturally [especially DHH people who come] from another country.”

“…there is a severe shortage of quality, appropriate, and accessible mental health services for the DHH community in the entire country (United States), let alone California.”

“…Often we see that the ‘cheaper rate’ at an interpreter agency provides less qualified and lower skilled interpreters…during a therapy session, often the low skilled interpreter will have trouble understanding what is being said by the DHH person.”

Findings: Strengths and Assets

Community resiliency

Family

DHH Appropriate

Services

“Families have their cultural knowledge and insights that they bring to the table.”

“…we do have a voice! And we have to speak up for our rights which is still a struggle for us. We’ve been fighting for a long time about [our] issues of language access, education, etc.”

“Community …[professional and family] relationships are interdependent oriented…emphasis on the "relational" or relationship between each other…how they interact with others is a strength.”

Findings: Recommendations

Improve cultural competency within families and providers

Increase resources to improve access to education and mental health care

“The low expectations that hearing parents sometimes have for their DHH children is more about their ignorance and limited access to unbiased and appropriate information that they need to know for their DHH children.”“A real change in how funding is dispersed. Every year we have seen funding cuts go deeper and deeper…too many have shut down in recent years due to funding cuts and the need is greater than ever.”