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Deaf Services

There are between 50 000 and 75 000 deaf people in the UK. Many have British Sign Language as their first or preferred language. Deaf people have the same mental health needs as hearing people. They also have additional problems caused by the social and emotional pressures linked to deafness, and because it is often hard to get access to mental health services.

Many deaf people suffer emotional and educational deprivation, especially when they have been born into hearing families. This is because they have often not had access to sign language when they were growing up.

We provide specialist mental health assessment and treatment for deaf people, working alongside mainstream mental health services, social care agencies or voluntary organisations. Our care is tailored to the specific needs of deaf people presenting with mental health problems. The service is used to dealing with a wide range of mental health disorders experienced by individual deaf people.

The service is delivered in a number of ways including:

Inpatient uniy
Outpatient facilities
Day services

A key benefit of our service is our extensive knowledge in understanding how mental health problems are experienced and presented by deaf people as well as the most effective ways of intervening. Service users can be confident in our ability to understand and provide a wide range of communication options, with all staff trained in British Sign Language and many staff able to use Deafblind “hands on” Sign Language.