Deaf people and mental wellbeing

Exploring and measuring mental wellbeing in British Sign Language

The prevalence of mental health difficulties in d/Deaf populations is higher than that of the hearing population. The association between mental health difficulties in childhood and well-being in adulthood amongst d/Deaf populations, including as perceived by Deaf people themselves, has been little explored.

Access by d/Deaf people to mental health services is poor. In addition, there is a paucity of mental health assessments available in British Sign Language.
The aims of this PhD were:

• to understand the association between childhood and adulthood mental well-being in d/Deaf populations;
• to find out how well the standardised mental health assessments can be used with d/Deaf populations; and
• to explore Deaf people’s perspectives on mental well-being.

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