BSMHD Newsletter – October 2006
Next BSMHD meeting – Edinburgh 1 December 2006
The next BSMHD meeting will be held in Edinburgh on 1 December 2006. The meeting will be an opportunity to meet staff from the Health Services and Deaf Organisations in Scotland and to start the plans for the 2007 BSMHD Annual Conference, which will also be held in Edinburgh. BSMHD Meetings are open to all members and are free to attend. If you would like to attend please contact Jonathan Isaac, [email protected].
The spring meeting will be held in Leeds in March. Further details will be available in the next Newsletter.
[back to top]
Healthy Deaf Minds
The next meeting of the Healthy Deaf Minds London Group will be on Wednesday 6th December at the Small Meeting Room, Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London (opposite Euston Station). The topic is "How Deaf people are affected by Hate Crime". The speaker is James Yaxley from the Metropolitian Police Service. In order to receive automatic Emails you only need to subscribe at: [email protected] . All meetings are on a Wednesday at Friends Meeting House, Euston. Starting at 6.30pm and finishing at 9pm. Full communication support, tea & coffee are available. Entrance fee is £4 to cover the cost of room hire.
[back to top]
Mental Health & Deafness Online Conference – 4/6 December 2006
* 25% discount for BSMHD members *
Presenters so far confirmed: Keynote One: The impact of experience on clinicians’ judgments regarding psychosis symptoms in Deaf patients by Dr. Robert Pollard. Keynote Two: Title to be confirmed by Dr. Brendan Monteiro. Best practices in treatment for deaf children who were exposed to domestic violence by Brian Berlinski. Using videoconferencing in mental health services for deaf children by Dr. Sara Rhys Jones, Ged Davies and Dr. Sophie Roberts. Social and emotional challenges of deaf students in special education in Israel by Dr. Erez Miller and Dr. Amazia Weisel. Bending the Rules - interpreting in mental health settings by Ben Karlin. Deaf people's access to nursing education (provisional title) by Naomi Sharples. The development of the Mental Health Services for the Deaf clinic, Ontario (provisional title) by Dr. Cathy Chovaz McKinnon.
The conference runs from the 4th - 6th December 2006. For more information please see the conference web site: www.online-conference.net/mh2006/introduction.htm , or contact [email protected] . Judith Mole, Direct Learn Services Ltd. www.directlearn.co.uk. To qualify for the discount you will need to enter a code on the online booking form, BSMHD members please contact Jonathan Isaac at [email protected] to get the code number. For more details about what an online conference is go to www.online-conference.net/what.htm
[back to top]
Deafness And Challenging Behaviour
Sally Austen and Dave Jeffery(Eds)
Challenging behaviours such as aggression and violence are more common in deaf people than hearing people. The assumption that being deaf inevitably leads to an increase in such behaviours is strongly challenged by exploring the avoidable causal factors.
Filling a crucial gap in the international market, this book will appeal equally to those who work occasionally or entirely with Deaf or hearing impaired client groups of all ages.
Multi-disciplinary professionals with specialist knowledge of working with deaf people explore aspects of mild to severe challenging behaviour with reference to its cause, assessment, prevention and management.
This book will be of relevance to professionals and carers involved in the delivery of actual and potential aggression management in the fields of
- Mental health
- Education
- Learning disability
- Speech and language therapy
- Prison and forensic services
- Audiology
- Nursing
International contributors, providing a wealth of easily accessible knowledge, consider this extremely heterogeneous group from neuro-psychological, cognitive-behavioural, socio-political, service-user, psychodynamic and systemic perspectives.
Deafness and Challenging Behaviour aims to stimulate debate in contentious areas such as restraint practices and human rights, whilst bridging gaps in the application of culturally cogent service provision for the deaf communities. Special emphasis is placed on the needs of Deaf sign language users.
Available from Forest Books www.forestbooks.com
[back to top]
Towards Equity and Access Implementation Panel
The TEA Implementation Panel last met on 28 September. The minutes from the meeting will be available from the BSMHD website shortly.
If you are able to assist the Implementation Officers in their work please contact Herbert Klein or Lloyd Wint, The Bridge, Falcon Mews, 46 Oakmead Road, London SW12 9SJ. [email protected] or [email protected] Fax 020 8772 3242 Voice 020 8772 3225 Textphone 020 8772 3241.
The agenda and minutes and supporting papers of the TEA Panel meetings are available on the BSMHD website at www.bsmhd.org.uk/teaimp.htm . The next meeting of the panel is on Wednesday 29 November 2006.
[back to top]
Disability Equality Duty
The Disability Equality Duty for the public sector comes into effect in December 2006. This new legal duty requires all public authorities to actively look at ways of ensuring that disabled people are treated equally. All public authorities covered by the specific duties must also produce a Disability Equality Scheme (DES).
Sign have produced some recommendations on priorities concerning deaf patients and employees in the NHS to help Primary Care Trusts to meet their obligation to have in place a DES. Whilst the DES will cover all disabled people, these recommendations are mainly about deaf people as patients and employees of the NHS. The Disability Discrimination Act (2005) requires all public bodies to consult and engage with disabled people, including deaf people, as part of the process of drawing up the DES and monitoring any action arising. The aim of the equality scheme is to facilitate removal of barriers for all disabled and deaf people. This includes people who might not automatically identify themselves as disabled, but who nevertheless face discrimination in their everyday life because of society’s inability or unwillingness to include them. Some public sector organisations have already established working forums of deaf people to work with in identifying priority needs and provide with feedback on the services provided or commissioned but many will need guidance to help them do so.
The information and issues covered by the DES Recommendations are drawn from national work, research and Sign’s experience in working with health organisations, ranging from auditing performance for deaf people, consulting deaf communities to feed into policy planning, in developing improvement plans and helping PCTs to implement the Department of Health recommendations in the Towards Equity and Access Report. The DES Recommendations are available from Sign and can be easily adapted for other public sector organisations. For further details contact [email protected]
Further details about the Disability Equality Duty are also available from the Disability Rights Commission website at
www.drc-gb.org
[back to top]
New BSL video clips of mental health information
Information for Mental Health (part of Leeds Mind) have published on their website a series of video clips of mental health information in BSL. Clink on the link from the home page - www.mentalhealthleeds.info - to view the video clips.
[back to top]
Annual Deafness Conference – 7 November 2006
The UK Council on Deafness Annual Conference is on Tuesday 7 November 2006 at Britannia Street Conference Centre, Kings Cross, London.
Keynote Address: Bruce Calderwood, Head of the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) and the Director for Disabled People and Carers in the Department for Work and Pensions. Bruce leads the team of advisers who support the Minister for Disabled People. Bruce is a career civil servant who specialises in social policy. He has worked in the private offices of two Secretaries of State, and as a policy adviser to the Premier’s Department in the State of Victoria in Australia. He led the cross-Government reviews that resulted in the creation of Jobseeker’s Allowance and of Supporting People. The ODI works with all government departments to develop and improve services for disabled people, and in particular with the departments responsible for health, transport, education and skills, work and pensions, trade and industry, and for communities and local government.
Guest speaker - Father Cyril Axelrod. This fascinating talk will explore how to identify a difference between Deafblindness and Deafblindhood; the natural causes of deafblindness and deafblindhood based on culture, language and health; and a classification of different groups of people relating to deafblindness and deafblindhood, for example, what is the difference between people acquiring deaf and deafblindhood. Supporting presentations include: Fit for the Future - Bob Peckford, CACDP. Welcome Hear! - Miriam Marchi & Linda Isaac, Royal Association for Deaf People. Counselling Training - Trudi Collier & Teresa Brasier, Scottish Council on Deafness. ICT in Education - Kirsty Crombie-Smith, Deafax.
Exhibitors include Forest Books - Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre - Deafness Research UK - Cued Speech Association UK - The Ear Foundation - Teletec International - UK Deaf Sport - STAGETEXT - DSPG.
To book your place or for further information contact [email protected]
[back to top]
Office for Disability Issues Research Website
The Office for Disability Issues are developing the research pages on the ODI website - http://www.officefordisability.gov.uk/publications/research.asp . This will provide a central source of published disability research under key ODI themes and can help with dissemination of research. The web page is at early stages of development and the ODI are calling for details of research to be sent to them for inclusion.
For information, the latest entry is: Equal Treatment: Closing the Gap. A formal investigation into physical health inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities and/or mental health problems. DRC. Key Findings: This investigation provides new evidence that people with learning disabilities and people with mental health problems are more likely to experience major illness, to develop serious health conditions at an earlier age and to die of them sooner than other people. They are also less likely to receive some of the important evidence-based treatments and health checks than others with the same condition but without a mental health condition or learning disability. The report also identifies barriers faced when accessing services. Policy implications: The report argues for a clear shift in approach - not only to root out unequal treatment but also explicitly to target these very high risk groups for health checks and follow-up treatments. It suggests this will prevent the extra costs of serious ill health being passed on to other parts of the National Health System and enable these groups to be healthier and participate fully in society. Methodology: Primary research was carried out in four main areas (one local health board in Wales and 3 Primary Care Trusts in England) involving senior health professionals, policy makers and disabled people. This entailed a quantitative survey of 1000 people with learning disabilities and/or mental health problems and a mixture of focus groups and consultation exercises with service users and providers. Contractors also analysed eight million health records 488 general practices in England and Wales - believed to be the most comprehensive study of primary care records and mental health issues in the world. Collation of existing evidence through literature review, available at www.drc-gb.org/healthinvestigation
[back to top]
Forest Books recruiting a new manager
Forest Books Ltd will become the Trading Company of UK Council on Deafness in 2007 and is seeking to appoint a dynamic and commercially astute Manager to work alongside the present Managing Director until his retirement and then, after the transfer of ownership, to develop and grow the business to ensure long term viability. Forest Books is the largest supplier of publications, DVDs, Videos and software relating to sign language and to the full spectrum of deafness and has publishing, trade distribution and direct sales departments.
The position will suit someone with a sales and marketing/general management background with experience of successfully managing a customer focused business. You must be able to demonstrate previous contribution to significantly increasing turnover and profitability and have energy, persistence, self-motivation and excellent communication skills. Experience of working with the diverse range of deaf people, skills in communicating with deaf people and a personal understanding of the deaf communities and deaf issues would be a distinct advantage.
Deadline for applications: 23 October. Full details at www.forestbooks.com
[back to top]
Note: The articles that appear in this newsletter are for information only – inclusion does not imply endorsement of the contents by BSMHD.
The next edition of the BSMHD Newsletter will be sent out in December 2006. The deadline for sending articles is 1 December 2006. Please send by email to: [email protected]
