Mental Health and Deafness Program

This program is the result of an ongoing Ohio Department of Mental Health grant first awarded in 1989 to the School of Professional Psychology (SOPP) at Wright State University (WSU). An additional grant was awarded in 1995 by the Martha Holding Jennings Foundation which funded the 1995-1996 and the 1996-1997 workshop series.

The purpose of the training program is to train mental health professionals in working with deaf clients and interpreters and to prepare interpreters for work in mental health settings. The training program is a multi-disciplinary program involving 5 programs, 2 universities and 1 college. The grant has been administered by SOPP at WSU, but it involves several other departments at WSU as well as departments at the University of Dayton (UD) and Sinclair Community College (SCC). These programs include: psychology, psychiatry, mental health counseling, rehabilitation counseling, art therapy and interpreting.

PHILOSOPHY

SOPP is dedicated to training professionals in the delivery of quality psychological services. The Training Program in Mental Health and Deafness is equally dedicated to teaching and training mental health professionals and interpreters concerning the characteristics, needs, culture and communication aspects necessary to provide equal access to mental health services by deaf clients. It is our belief that deaf individuals have a right to equal mental health services, and that deaf students have an equal right to training in the mental health fields.

Due to the involvement of many different disciplines and training programs, the need for cooperation has been paramount. Fortunately, all of the participating programs have recognized the need for adequately trained professionals in this field and have cooperated fully with the program director.

MHDP GOALS

The Mental Health and Deafness Program seeks to accomplish the following goals:

1) The primary goal is to train mental health professionals in working with deaf clients, and to prepare interpreters for work in mental health settings via didactic and clinical experience .

2) To provide supervision of clinical work conducted by mental health students, and of interpreter work done by student interpreters, at the week-night clinic and the Saturday morning teaching program.

The week-night clinic is a three-hour clinic open Wednesday evenings during the academic school year (October through May) offering services to deaf individuals, couples and families as well as hearing partners and family members of Deaf clients. Interpreter and mental health students are assigned to work in pairs so that rules of ethical practice, including confidentiality, for both disciplines are observed. 

Approximately 50% of supervision of both the mental health students and the interpreter students will be conducted during the Wednesday night clinic. The remainder of supervision will occur during the Saturday morning teaching program, which is held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every other Saturday, via case presentations and case discussion of previously videotaped therapy sessions.

3) To facilitate the Saturday morning teaching program including: arranging presenters, video tape presentations, and supervision.

This is a three and one half hour program held every other Saturday at the Ellis Institute. The first hour involves a lecture presentation by the clinical supervisor and the interpreter supervisor. This lecture covers a wide variety of topics (see yearly schedule). The second hour involves current case discussions between the interpreter students, clinical students and supervisors. The remaining time involves presentations to the whole group by area presenters or by videotapes as scheduled.

4) To encourage participation by interested students and related programs via periodic published announcements, teleconferences and electronic media.

5) To maintain mutual support of area agencies in Dayton which would refer clients for services, provide presenters for training, and possibly support graduates of the program through internships.

6) To manage and further develop a curriculum that is based on knowledge gained from conferences, area programs, and presenters in the workshop series.

7) To encourage the "career ladder system" whereby a student is able to move from Sinclair's interpreter training program at an Associate level, through Wright State University's Bachelor degree level, with the goal of completing their training with a graduate degree in a professional mental health field.

Since an agreement already exists between Sinclair and WSU for students to transfer credits, this arrangement merely asks the graduate programs to value a student having interpretation and transliteration skills as a program candidate. The graduate programs also have acknowledged a willingness to help a student, who may have a deficit area, through tutoring or assigned "peers", in order that a person with good communication abilities can become a qualified mental health professional.

8) To encourage students to take courses in manual communication at Wright State University or at Sinclair Community College (ex. Course MAC111 - Fingerspelling and Basic American Sign Language).

9) To ensure that the program director and regular staff maintain a current and up-to-date knowledge base in the area of mental health and deafness by attending local, regional and national conferences that focus on new approaches and techniques for providing mental health services to deaf clients.

10) To provide and manage a lending library. Video tapes, books and related materials are intended for participating students, programs, agencies and the general public to utilize and borrow. Materials are free of charge. The library is located on the second floor in suite 211 in the Ellis Institute.

11) To support the involvement of deaf citizens as advisors to the program, deaf students as participants, and deaf professionals as presenters and instructors.

LONG RANGE PLANS

Long range plans for the Mental Health and Deafness Program include: 

1) To continue working toward the inclusion of deaf and hard-of-hearing students, instructors and citizen advisors in the program. 

2) To cooperate with research efforts of the major national centers for studies regarding deaf and hard-of-hearing people. 

3) To work toward establishing a post-doctoral internship site for qualified graduates, including those from the Ph.D. Clinical Psychology program at Gallaudet University. 

4) To continue to support special interest groups in the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association for psychologists and psychiatrists providing services to clients with hearing-impairments. 

SUPPORT AGENCIES AND SERVICES

Service delivery sites, in addition to the Ellis Institute, which have offered their facilities as observation sites for students include: Community Services for the Deaf, Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, Hearing-Impaired Students Program of the Dayton Public Schools, Regional Assessment Center for Handicapped Students, the Ohio School for the Deaf and St. Rita's School for the Deaf.

Area agencies offering staff to serve as instructors for the Saturday morning training and as consultants include: Community Services for the Deaf, Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Regional Assessment Center, Dayton Public Schools, and Office for Disability Services at Wright State University.

Arrangements have been made to allow students from Wright State University, University of Dayton and Sinclair Community College to have reciprocal utilization privileges for any library materials, including video-tapes, in their main libraries and media centers, as well as other academic and clinical facilities.

Discussions with agencies in Dayton and in other areas of Ohio have been conducted and will continue in order to encourage the placement of program graduates in positions of employment or internship. Discussions have already taken place with: Community Services for the Deaf in Dayton, St. Vincent's School in Columbus, Central Psychiatric Hospital in Columbus, and the Netcare program in Columbus. Other contacts will be made for graduates to feel encouraged to remain in Ohio. This is particularly true of any deaf graduates who finish the training program.

Coordination from area service delivery systems has also been full and consistent. This includes contacts with the Mental Health Board, the Regional Task Force on Mental Health and Deafness, the Community Services for the Deaf, the Interpreter Coordinator Services, the Information and Referral Services on Deafness, the Regional Assessment Center for Handicapped Students, and the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation.

A major concern is the involvement of deaf students and presenters in the training program. All participating programs and agencies have expressed a willingness to support the involvement of deaf students and presenters. For the program to have credibility and support from the deaf community at large, this goal is essential.

ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES

Robert Basil, Psy.D. provides overall supervision and administration for the mental health students. Mark Zangara, M.A., and Darlene Goncz Zangara, M.A., provide clinical supervision and instruction in working with deaf clients. Ms. Goncz Zangara directs the Ohio Resource Center on Deafness in Columbus. Barbara Dunaway, C.T.,C.I., a comprehensively certified interpreter, provides the overall supervision and instruction for the interpreter students. Ms. Dunaway is a free-lance interpreter in the Dayton area. Other mental health professionals and certified interpreters from the area also provide instruction for the students. A videotape library of past workshops is available to students for their instruction.