BSMHD 2009 Annual Conference - London, 8 & 9 June 2009 

Some places still available, book your place now: Booking Form

Monday 8th June 2009 - 11.00am - 5.30pm & Tuesday 9th June 2009 - 10.00am - 4.00pm. At the Royal Horticultural Society, Vincent Square, London, SW1P 2PE. A two day multidisciplinary conference for all mental health professionals and those in allied professions who work with deaf people. The sub-themes for the conference are: Research in Mental Health and Deafness; Primary Care; Professional Development; and Strategic Development of Services. Details of workshops and presentations; the programme for both days, directions and local hotels are now on the website. For full details go to the Events page

Next BSMHD members meeting - Manchester, September 2009

The next BSMHD meeting will be held in Manchester in September. The meeting will also be the BSMHD Annual General Meeting. Full details will be announced shortly.

Healthy Deaf Minds - London

The next meeting of the Healthy Deaf Minds London Group will be on Wednesday 3 June 2009 at the Small Meeting Room, Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London (opposite Euston Station). The title of the meeting is 'Mental Wellbeing in the Deaf Community', guest speakers include Pauline Latchem, freelance Counsellor and Hazel Flynn, Head of Advocacy and Counselling at SignHealth. Full details on the Healthy Deaf Minds page

Healthy Deaf Minds - North East

Healthy Deaf Minds North East will be meeting on Thursday May 28th at 6.30pm at Central Square, Forth Street, (behind the Railway Station) Newcastle upon Tyne. The speakers will be Andrew Nicholson, Project Manager of Northumberland,Tyne and Wear NHS Trust on " How to be a member/Governor of the Foundation" and Dr Kevin Baker Clinical Psychologist, Nottingham Healthcare Trust and The National Deaf Service who will be talking on "What is CBT?". For details contact Newcastle Deaflink [email protected]

Vacancy: Occupational Therapist, Deaf Mental Health Team

Full Time, permanent, based at Brookland Hall, St Werbughs. GRADE Bristol Grade 10/11 Main Scp 30-34 Advanced Scp 34-37. This is a significant opportunity for an Occupational Therapist interested in joining a specialist integrated community mental health service supporting Deaf and hearing impaired service users. The team consists of a Team Leader/Clinical Psychologist and three part time Community Care Workers and we are very keen to augment our skills mix with Occupational Therapy. The team undertake assessments, deliver a range of interventions and provide support under the CPA process for service users living in the Bristol area. The team has links with Bristol Sensory Impairment Service as well as general community mental health services. There is considerable scope for continuing to develop this service to provide an excellent resource for a group of people who have been traditionally underserved. Occupational Therapy qualification is essential as if experience of working with deaf people and British Sign Language level 2. For further information please contact Mary Griggs, Team Leader on 0117 9556098. To apply please see Bristol City Council website for details. Closing date: 3rd June.

Vacancies in the new National Deaf CAMHS

The first of the posts are now being advertised. If you go on NHS jobs www.jobs.nhs.uk and put in keyword ‘deaf’. The psychology posts are now advertised for York, Cambridge and Kent. Dudley, Oxford and Nottingham will be advertising soon.

Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Deaf Community

13th Oct 2009, Centre for Deaf People, Kings Square Bristol BS2 8JL. Every month a regional supervision and support group meets in a mental health team base in Bristol to discuss clinical and professional issues linked to working with Deaf people with mental health problems. It became evident that a very high proportion of adult Deaf mental health service users we support had survived childhood sexual abuse, and clearly the toll of these experiences on mental health has been significant. This anecdotal finding echoes research which suggests that sexual abuse effects up to 30-40% of Deaf people. In order to bring this topic to the wider attention of the right professionals and interested parties, we are proposing a one day workshop to explore services to Deaf survivors of CSA. This would be an opportunity for those with an interest or involvement in this field to come to together and discuss the key issues. Areas of concern include the following: Do Deaf people have equal access to specialist counselling, therapy and support? What can advocacy organisations offer Deaf people who need support? What steps have been made in bringing perpetrators to justice and what can be learned form this process? What work is ongoing within Deaf organisations in this field e.g. NDCS, RNID, BDA? Is there a role for greater awareness within the Deaf Community and who could take the lead in this area? Do Deaf people have access to mainstream support services for survivors of CSA? How can professionals help? We are focusing our interest on survivors of CSA in particular, although it is clear that Deaf people are over represented as victims of other types of abuse e.g. physical, emotional, financial etc. These area are all worthy of attention however in order we maintain focus, we are looking at CSA.We are hoping to invite speakers to talk at this event and also arrange for small group discussions during the day to share resources within the field. If you are interested in attending this event, or would like more information please email [email protected] as soon as possible. The event will cost £10 only, which will cover room hire, communication support and lunch which is being subsidised by the Centre for Deaf People.

Deaf Stepping Stones Project

The Deaf Stepping Stones Project aims to work with 150 Deaf Londoners over a 2 year period, who either have a diagnosed or undiagnosed Mental Health condition or learning disability, who are not working. The Mental Health condition may not have been formally diagnosed. After Deaf Stepping Stones the aim is for the clients to progress onto further learning, work focused training, volunteering or find employment within 6 months. The Deaf Stepping Stones project will find employers that are happy to have these clients placed within their companies to perform various types of work. Placements could be in business, in the voluntary sector, job search and IAG with job search – with IAG being the required minimum. Deaf Stepping Stones focus will be on Deaf, Hard of Hearing or Deafblind clients with moderate to severe Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, concentrating on enhancing their quality of life through improvement of their social and living skills. In addition, teaching them how to manage their condition in the workplace and encouraging small steps towards P/T employment. The clients’ placement will be for a period of 8 weeks, timings will be agreed with each employer. The clients will initially work between 2 and 10 hours a week building towards sustaining at least 8, developing skills and personal coping strategies. To achieve this aim each client will require assistance from a ‘buddy’. The ‘buddy’ will be required to give support to the client within agreed boundaries. The level of support will differ dependent on the needs, the MH condition or severity of learning disability. Each ‘buddy’ will receive training to perform this role. Each client will be assessed and individual plans formalised. After assessment the level of support will be determined by the Deaf Stepping Stones Project team. Depending on the level of support required, specific risk assessments may be carried out by the Deaf Stepping Stones Project Managers. Any findings from these assessments will be shared with the employer and ‘buddy’ if felt appropriate. Regular feedback will be required from the ‘buddy’ with appropriate support and supervision being given by the Deaf Stepping Stones Project team. For further information please contact: Herbert Klein [email protected] or Hannah Worthley [email protected]

DWC launches depression awareness TV Ad Campaign

The Deaf Wellness Center announces the launch of a public service announcement (PSA) campaign aimed at increasing Deaf community awareness about depression. The campaign is centered around three PSAs filmed entirely in American Sign Language (ASL) with no sound track. Three PSAs were produced. A 30-second and a 60-second PSAs are being broadcast on several television stations in the Rochester, NY area. A 45-second extended version of the 30-second PSA was produced exclusively for Internet dissemination. All three PSAs can be viewed by clicking on this link: http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/dwc/scholarship/Depression%20PSAs.htm . (The 30- and 60-second PSAs can be viewed in ASL-only format or with English subtitles (captions) added.) All three PSAs are narrated (in ASL) by former Sesame Street star, Linda Bove. They also feature deaf professionals and deaf actors from the Western New York region. Print advertisements supporting the campaign will appear in local Rochester newspapers. We are hopeful that this campaign will bring much-needed awareness about depression to the local and national Deaf communities.

Lebenswelt Schenkenfelden

On 16th of July Lebenswelt Schenkenfelden will celebrate its 10th birthday. We do not only want to inform you about this event but also invite you to join us for this occasion. The evening of Thursday 16 July will be the culmination of a three day encounter of more than 200 Deaf with additional disabilities. Our festivities are planned to include those who are in the centre of our work in Lebenswelt. So why not even consider bringing some of your clients with you for these few days? (We include a programme of this part of our week). We expect that quite a few of our friends working in the field of Deafness will join us in that week. We will therefore also have an open discussion on the Friday morning (17 July) on the work with Deaf plus (Deaf with additional abilities). There will be no lectures or papers read but a real open discussion on some important topics in this field. This symposium will take place in Linz from 9:00 till 12:00 after which we will all have lunch together in the Hospital. As soon as we have received your reply, indicating your interest to attend (for the Thursday/Friday or for the Tuesday – Friday, we will send you more information about possible accommodation. We hope to see you at least at our festive evening on the 16th of July! Jan and Martie van Arkel, Lebenswelt Schenkenfelden, Johannes Fellinger, Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and Speech-neurology. Contact details for more information [email protected]

 
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