What Do These Numbers Mean?: Here’s an interesting data table from a research study on Deaf mental health consumers done back in 1998. One author is Deaf, the other two are hearing – it’s great they have one Deaf author/researcher on board! Even though the table is shown below out of context of the original article and without demographic data on the participants, the numbers are revealing.

ASL/English: The first part of the table lists psychology-related English words and the percentages of Deaf people who recognize them. Without going in-depth about this, the main points are that any clinicians working with Deaf people need to know that more Deaf people will recognize these words in ASL. If an assessment involves any written tests or even interpreters, it’s important that the right words are used, otherwise the tests results won’t be valid.

Deaf Friends: Further down the table, 61% of the Deaf respondents identified their Deaf friends as the people from whom they get the most information about psychology-related terms. This makes sense, if you consider that most Deaf people have hearing parents and siblings, and very few of these families provide equal communication access. Today, we might see more Deaf people getting their information from vlogs and blogs, the same way many people relied on their friends at Deaf clubs for information.

Causes of Mental Health Problems: A powerful message here: 39-54% of respondents indicated family problems, upbringing, and poor communication as primary causes of mental health problems. If 90% of Deaf people have hearing parents, we can assume that for the majority of families, communication is not in ASL, something that may be related to later mental health issues. Only 8% cited being Deaf as a cause of mental health problems. This is a clear message that the majority of Deaf people have a positive view of being Deaf when it comes to mental health.

Deaf or Hearing Therapists/Counselors: Not surprisingly, 72% of respondents preferred Deaf therapists over hearing therapists. Even though it isn’t indicated if the respondents were given a choice between Deaf therapists and ASL-fluent hearing therapists, the numbers speak loudly. Our own experience as psychotherapists has been that Deaf clients report feeling relieved to be able to work with psychotherapists who are Deaf and who “get” the Deaf experience. Given this, why aren’t Deaf-oriented gradaute programs in mental health and psychology recruiting and admitting more Deaf students? And why aren’t more community mental health agencies seeking Deaf professionals?

Take a look at the table and let us know what you think of the numbers. What do they mean, particularly in 2008? What, if any, changes would you predict today in Deaf people’s knowledge and views related to mental health?

REFERENCE:

Steinberg, A.G., Sullivan, V.J., & Loew, R.C. (1998). Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to Mental Health Service Access: The Deaf Consumer’s Perspective. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155(7),982-984

World Map of Happiness: Adrian White, a British analytic social psychologist at the University of Leicester, has published the first world map of happiness, ranking 178 countries in order from happiest to least happiest. More than 100 studies that involved 80,000 people were used to determine the happiness rankings. In his research, White found that health is the best predictor of happiness. The healthier people are, the happier they are. The next two predictors of happiness are wealth and education.

The 20 Happiest Nations In The World:

1 – Denmark
2 – Switzerland
3 – Austria
4 – Iceland
5 – The Bahamas
6 – Finland
7 – Sweden
8 – Bhutan
9 – Brunei
10 – Canada
11 – Ireland
12 – Luxembourg
13 – Costa Rica
14 – Malta
15 – The Netherlands
16 – Antigua and Barbuda
17 – Malaysia
18 – New Zealand
19 – Norway
20 – The Seychelles

Other Notable Happy Countries:

23. USA
35. Germany
41. UK
62. France
82. China
90. Japan
125. India
167. Russia

The Three Least Happy Countries:

176. Democratic Republic of the Congo
177. Zimbabwe #178. Burundi

Deaf People and Happiness: It is interesting to us that neither family, friends, relationships, or community is among the top three predictors of happiness in the above study, nor were they cited as being significantly correlated with happiness. Even if you are in the best health, have all the money you need, and have a great education, if you don’t have any close friends or family in your life, would you really be happy?

For Deaf people especially, our connections in the Deaf community and our shared experiences with each other are often cited as among the most treasured aspects of our lives. Just as Deaf people in the past gathered regularly in Deaf clubs, we see Deaf people today making it a priority to gather with each other online and in other places. Many Deaf people’s websites are evolving into blogsites, for example, making them popular interactive spaces for meeting, sharing stories, debating, and connecting. Another illustration of how much the Deaf community means to people is evident in the thousands of people who traveled to Deaf Way I and II. The smiles on people’s faces were all you needed to see to know that community and friendship relate to happiness, just as much as health, wealth, and education.

An Impossible Dream?: Not everyone thinks that happiness is attainable, however. A new book, Going Sane: Maps of Happiness, suggests that perhaps the reason so many people are looking high and low for happiness without much success, is because happiness does not really exist as we think it does. The more we chase an idealistic vision of happiness, the more disappointed we will be with life. Happiness, instead, comes in finding and accepting the good things we do have in our lives.

Collecting Demographic Information: If you have ever tried to collect demographic information about the membership of an organization, program, or university, you (a) may have been lucky enough to get a straightforward, no-questions-asked breakdown of the membership by gender, race, age, and so on, or (b) you may have found your request for information met with hesitation, suspicion, or outright hostility, as we experienced not long ago.

Curious to learn more about how many Deaf people work in the mental health field as therapists, social workers, psychologists, and educators, we set out to gather some statistics. This is what we observed while making our requests for information via telephone or email (keep in mind that these are observations only, not scientific or empirically-based findings). It was fairly easy to get answers to questions such as “How many members does your organization have?” or “How many faculty in your department hold doctoral degrees?”.

Once we began asking how many employees or members were Deaf or hearing, however, our questions seemed to be met with resistance. “Why are you calling?”, “What do you plan to do with this information?”, and even “I’m not sure if I have permission to tell you that.” One person put us through what amounted to a full background check, before begrudgingly counting the Deaf and hearing faculty members in her department. It didn’t take long before we concluded that Deaf:hearing ratios fall into the category of “sensitive” information.

Nobody seemed very eager to hand over these demographics, except for a spokesperson who worked for one of the few programs with a relatively high Deaf:hearing ratio, compared to the others. Another consented to share statistics only after being reassured that they would be used in a “positive light”. As compared to what? If all organizations, programs, and departments are proud of their membership, what do they have to worry about?

ADARA Statistics: Here’s an example of some Deaf/hearing demographics we were able to obtain from ADARA (American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association), a national organization of mental health professionals who work with Deaf people. At present, the ADARA membership totals 278. Of these 61 identified as Deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened, or Deaf-blind; 83 identified as hearing. Unfortunately, no data was available for the remaining 134.

Even without the complete breakdown, a ratio of 61 Deaf to 83 hearing members is relatively high in comparison to the ratios of other programs, organizations, and departments we surveyed. It is our dream, though, that the ratio be reversed. As board members of our local Washington, DC chapter of ADARA, we hope to increase the number of Deaf professionals involved. We hope that one day, all programs, organizations, and departments that directly serve Deaf people will be comprised of largely Deaf memberships.

Only 2 African Americans?!: Another disturbing statistic we observed from the ADARA data is the breakdown according to race: 129 members identified as white, 15 as non-white (with data unavailable for the remaining 134). Clearly, this is something that needs to change, along with the Deaf:hearing ratio, if the organization is going to be representative of the Deaf community. Graduate programs at Gallaudet and elsewhere need to work harder to recruit, retain, and groom Deaf students and professionals, especially those from minority groups. ADARA statistics in detail, for those who are curious:

45 Deaf
14 Hard of Hearing
1 Late Deafened
1 Deaf Blind
83 Hearing
134 No response

129 White
1 Other
5 Asian
2 African American
1 Native American
3 Hispanic
3 Bi Racial
134 No Response

37 Doctorate
79 Master
21 Bachelor
1 Associate
6 High School
134 No response

108 Female
36 Male
134 No response