Sensory impairment and mental health

Margaret du Feu has been the consultant psychiatrist for the Birmingham mental health service for deaf people (National Deaf Mental Health Services (Birmingham), Denmark House, Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Mindelsohn Way, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2QZ, UK) since its inception in 1991. She is deafened from cochlear otosclerosis, and had a cochlear implant in 1999. Special interests include mental health prevention work and enduring mental illness. She was a trustee of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) between 1996 and 2001. Kenneth Fergusson has been research assistant at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital’s Deaf Mental Health Services since 1996. He is the main author of an extensive bibliography on deaf cultural and mental health issues. He is currently involved in research relevant to service development.

Sensory impairment is often regarded from a medical/disability point of view and its effects on mental health can be poorly recognised. Communication is a key issue for deaf and deaf–blind people and difficulties here underlie developmental, psychological and emotional problems and delay or prevent appropriate assessment and treatment. Children may have additional problems associated with the cause of their sensory impairment and need early multi-disciplinary intervention. Emotional and practical support is needed for families to make fully informed choices. Those with and without sensory impairment need the same access to mental health services and this is particularly difficult to achieve for deaf and deaf–blind people. Local and specialist teams need to work together to implement the National Service Framework for this vulnerable patient group.