1. Deaf Education and Mental Health
Katherine Schwartz
University of Nebraska Omaha
March 2017

2. Introduction to Mental Health
According to the National Institute of Mental Health and the CDC, 1 in 8 adolescents ages 8-15 years old and 1 in 5 adolescents ages suffer from severe mental illness at some point in their lives (NIMH, 2010)
NIMH also reports that roughly 46% of adolescents report some form of mental illness up to or within the ages of (NIMH, 2010)
50-70% of adults with mental illness indicated that signs appeared in adolescence (Froese-Germain, B., & Rie, R., 2012)

3. Literature Review
D/HH students are at a greater risk of struggling with mental health than hearing students (Van Gent et al. 720)
Important clarification: deafness does not cause mental illness (Du Feu and Chovaz 104)
Because D/HH lack language skills, they lack social and emotional skills as well, which feeds into their mental health, self perception, and overall quality of life.
Deaf children report lower quality of life (Brice & Strauss, 2016)
Personality disorders and intellectual disabilities are 3-6 times more likely in deaf people (National Association of the Deaf, 2008 as cited in Du Feu and Chovaz 105)

4. Literature Review (con’t)
Mental illness leads to feelings of loneliness and isolation, which increases risk for anxiety, depression, and suicide (Lu et al. 552)
54% of D/HH students report struggling with mental health (Brown and Cornes 76)
Parents and teachers have different and more positive perceptions of students’ mental health (Marschark 6)
If students don’t have a strong, common language at home and/or school, they will not be properly identified as struggling with mental health and, therefore, will not get proper treatment

5. Research Questions
Are deaf and hard of hearing teachers able to recognize the potential warning signs of mental health issues in their students?
How do teachers respond if and when they are aware of students’ mental health issues?

6. Survey 48 total Likert items:
16 related to teacher’s self-efficacy and current knowledge of mental health issues
6 describing an attitude, belief, perception, feeling, emotion or intention
9 related to the presence of mental health issues in current settings
13 related to barriers to providing services to D/HH students
4 regarding additional training

7. Data Collection Survey was created in Survey Monkey
The survey link was made available to Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing through the Nebraska Department of Education’s D/HH Education Advisory Committee
Survey link was available for two months
Results were collected and analyzed

8. Respondents 14 responses 14 Female 14 Teachers of the Deaf
Years of service ranged from <1 - 34
Represented roughly 8 different school districts
Teachers work in a mixture of settings, including itinerant, general education, self-contained classroom, home based, and consultant
While the majority of teachers indicated some sort of training in mental health specific to D/HH, 21% had received zero training

9. Current student case load

10. Results

11. Self-Efficacy
Nearly 60% of teachers indicated a substantial need for development in their ability to provide information to students and families about mental health concerns for their students
Close to half of all teachers surveyed indicated some need for development in 14/16 categories (close to 90%).
Teachers felt most confident in their ability to create a learning environment where all D/HH students can succeed

12. Attitudes Toward Mental Health
Close to half of teachers disagree that D/HH students’ mental health and overall well being is adequately addressed in their districts.
The same 50% disagreed with the statement that they are adequately trained to recognize the signs of mental health issues in their students

13. Mental Health Concerns
-Eating disorders -Substance abuse
-Learning disabilities

14. Barriers
More than half of respondents identified the following as barriers to receiving services:
Lack of
school-based mental health professionals with expertise in D/HH
community based mental health providers with D/HH experience
adequate training staff in dealing with D/HH mental health
we really should have run an ANOVA for this ease out differences in setting or age group

15. Current Mental Health Training specific to D/HH

16. Conclusions

17. Training Needs
All teachers indicated they would benefit from training in the following areas:
How to recognize the mental health needs of D/HH students
Strategies for working with D/HH students who have additional health needs
Engaging and working with families
Strategies for overall social, emotional, and behavioral well being of D/HH students

18. I would greatly benefit from additional training in the following categories:

19. Limitations This was a pilot study Only 14 responses
Limited to the Nebraska Department of Education
Descriptive data only

20. Next Steps
Additional data analysis to identify variance between settings and age groups
Expand the survey distribution to include more teachers in different states
Create both pre-service and in-service mental health training opportunities for the Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing

21. References
Brice, P. J., & Strauss, G. (2016). Deaf adolescents in a hearing world: a review of factors affecting psychosocial adaptation. Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics, 7, 67–76.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2010). Any disorder among children [Data file]. Retrieved from disorder-among-children.shtml
Froese-Germain, B., & Rie, R. (2012). Understanding teachers’ perspectives on student mental health: A national survey. Canadian Teachers’ Federation. Retrieved from fce.ca/Research-Library/StudentMentalHealthReport.pdf
Van Gent, Tiejo, Arnold W. Goedhart, and Philip D.A. Treffers. “Self-concept and psychopathology in deaf adolescents: preliminary support for moderating effects of deafness related characteristics and peer problems.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (2011) : PsychINFO. Web. 1 April 2015.