Sign Health: Mental Health Workshop for Professional

On Wednesday 27th January 2021, Zebra Access working with Sign Health hosted a workshop for professionals, focusing on equality for Deaf Mental Health. 

Sign health covered a number of topics to help professionals understand about Deaf culture, history, referral processes, budgets and why it is important to receive appropriate support from professional and how it can affect Deaf people. 

Sign health also shared two real life stories showing clients’ experiences of being rejected and denied access to see mental health professionals regarding their mental health. One of stories occured in the Black Country. 

There were 32 professionals in attendance on that day. 

“This workshop surprised a number of professionals and gave them a clearer understanding of why it is important to ensure Deaf and Hard of Hearing people receive the right support from professionals. Hopefully we will see any better access for Deaf people to see mental health professionals or get the appropriate support from a number of organisations. The two videos were actual clients who suffered as they didn’t receive the appropriate support, and sadly one of them was from the Black Country. Obviously, these things shouldn’t happen in the first place, and this was an eye opener for professionals as they didnt think it happened locally, This is a highly recommend workshop from Sign Health." - Sean Noone - Community Development Officer (Zebra Access)

Here are some quotes form the participants. 

“I found the workshop very interesting, a few IT glitches initially but these were sorted quickly. The delivery of the workshop was good, information and offered much opportunity for participants to engage.” ​​- Amanda Franklin, Primary Care Mental Health Nurse

“I found it very useful and it certainly raised my awareness of some of the challenges faced by deaf people when they access health services. It also helped to increase my confidence and understanding of helping to make change in the way health services are delivered wherever I have the opportunity to do so. Thank you to Zebra Access for facilitating the workshop.” - Saffi Price, Deputy Chief Executive - WVSC

If you wish to receive any training like this, please contact Chris Beech via chris@zebra-access.com