Groundbreaking conference on mental health and deaf people held

By Katherine Delorenzo

Dr. Allen Sussman was among the many keynote speakrs at the recent First World Conference on Mental Health and Deafness.

Noel Traynor, an Irish mental health professional now working in England was among the participants on a panel exploring issues in working relationships between deaf and hearing professionals. Seated at right is Jennifer Ackerman, also of the U.K.

Dr. Robert Q. Pollard

In his work as director of the University Counseling Center in the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Allen Sussman recalled, the lack of sufficient campus services meant deaf people were often 'out of sight, out of mind.'

This and other reflections on the changing field of mental health and deaf people were the focus of the First World Conference on Mental Health and Deafness, 'Coming Together for a Better Tomorrow,' a groundbreaking conference held October 22-24 featuring several keynote speakers and over 495 participants, making it the largest deaf-related conference held to date at the Gallaudet University Kellogg Conference Center.

Sponsored by Gallaudet University Mental Health Center, the College for Continuing Education, and ADARA, the conference was chaired jointly by Lars von der Lieth, president of the European Society for Mental Health and Deafness, and Dr. Barbara Brauer, licensed psychologist and executive director of the Gallaudet Mental Health Center. Brauer also originated the idea of the conference.

The event was coordinated by Dr. Alan Marcus, director of community services at the University's Mental Health Center. Tipper Gore, wife of Vice-President Al Gore, served as honorary chair. Featured keynote speakers included Sussman, Dr. Nick Kitson, from Pathfinder NHS Trust in London, England, Dr. Robert Pollard, a professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and Dr. Sharon Ridgeway, research psychologist at the National Center for Mental Health and Deafness, Manchester, England.

An increased emphasis on training in deaf culture and deaf issues helps, said Sussman, currently a professor and clinical supervisor in the University's Graduate Department of Counseling, as well as a licensed psychologist in private practice. 'We need training in deafness, deaf culture, and so on, above and beyond our training as mental health professionals,' he said.

More than just training, mental health professionals must also recognize the changes in deaf people's lives which affect their emotional and social well-being. This is particularly true in light of current mainstreaming trends, said Sussman, which have not only affected children, but also the adults who leave these programs with 'psychological scars from the experience,' he said.

Nonetheless, Sussman believes that the field holds enormous promise, one that depends largely on the increased presence of aware and culturally knowledgeable professionals. 'There are still so few deaf professionals in mental health fields,' he concluded.

In addition to keynote speeches by noted mental health professionals from the United States and the United Kingdom, among other countries, the conference also included numerous workshops and sessions. Some of the issues explored included deaf children's personal and social development, adult sexual trauma survivors, standards of care, the psychosocial development of children with cochlear implants, manifestation of schizophrenia in deaf sign language users, psychoanalysis and deaf patients, and issues in the training of mental health interpreters.

There were a number of presenters affiliated with Gallaudet, including Dr. Diane Morton, Marcus, Carol Cohen, Dr. Virginia Gutman, and Betty Miller.

One of the more popular events was a panel discussion, 'Partnerships Between Deaf and Hearing Professionals,' moderated by Morton, a professor in the Department of Counseling. Curtailing the professional development of deaf professionals in the field is limited accessibility, and the small number of programs offering training in deaf issues, said a number of participants, including Alys Young, a mental health professional from England. 'If you don't provide training,' said Young, 'you don't provide access to learning.'

If the field of mental health can benefit from an increased emphasis on deaf issues and a larger number of deaf professionals, it also benefits from research and scholarship dedicated to the exploration of deaf issues in mental health, argued Pollard, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, who has lectured widely on mental health topics and spearheaded a Rochester program for deaf trainees in mental health fields.

More and more, scholarly publications and research studies are heeding the call to devote appropriate and fair attention to deaf mental health issues in ways that take into account cultural and linguistic differences, Pollard emphasized. Deaf professionals, said Pollard, 'hold the keys to vast gains in the mental health field' in this area. Pollard believes that in order for research studies to remain 'properly informed and balanced,' graduate students with expertise in deafness-related issues must take advantage of opportunities to publish in the field. 'Without [research], we cannot maximize the effectiveness of the clinical work,' he added.

If the United States has seen a burgeoning interest in the field, so have other countries. Kitson, director of Pathfinder NHS Trust, which provides mental health services to deaf people in the London area, spoke on the support which has enabled both the development of hospital units for deaf in-patient services and the attempts to establish more educational opportunities for deaf profesionials. 'We are just struggling to get qualified deaf professionals' to meet the needs of patients, said Kitson.

Proceedings from the conference will be published next year, with funding support from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The conference was capped off by a banquet and awards ceremony featuring a performance by Robert Daniels. Among the many established pioneers in the field of mental health and deafness honored with awards were Brauer; Dr. Brendan Monteiro, psychiatrist at the National Center for Mental Health and Deafness, Manchester, England; Dr. John Rainer; Dr. Luther Robinson, professor of psychiatry emeritus at Howard University College of Medicine; and Kitson. Sussman was also presented with a lifetime achievement award by Kitson.