What Can Social Workers Do to Promote, Encourage and Develop Deaf People - Research Proposal Example

In my third year placement, I worked working with the Sensory services Team in Southampton with children and adults with sensory loss. Recent records show that there are very few deaf people with mental health challenges in Britain have access to Mental Health care services. The team’s aim was to work with both deaf clients and hard hearing people. As a social worker in the organization I thought there was a need to research and come up with ways of promoting, encouraging, and developing deaf people to access these services, this is because I imagined the difficulty of being deaf and at the same time having mental health challenges which defiantly causes all sorts of imbalance in an individual’s life.

From the medical point of view hearing impairment can actually have effects on the mental health of an individual this is because people with such difficulties tend to have emotional and psychological problems which can further result in mental illness. I believe that my research issue is interesting because communication is the key to accessing any sort of care, information, or service, the deaf has communication as a major challenge, which significantly affects their ability accesses mental health care services.

There are many different causes of physical and mental challenges facing people in present British society, which differentiates their development from that of the ordinary people. According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (2008) statistical report, there are about 9 million deaf individuals in the United Kingdom. It is also approximated that 40% of the deaf population experience mental health problems at a particular point in their lifetime. (Hindley, 1994) highlights that over three million people in the U.

K require health care services. Yet within the same society, deaf individuals who require access to mental health care are faced with the challenge of overcoming considerable barriers in order to access the type of services that would meet their needs. 

Concerns have been raised concerning provision of mental health services available for deaf people with mental health problems in our society. It is essential to take note of the fact that this category of people needs a lot of support. This means that first the society should accept the status of these people and look into ways of helping them. According to the records of the survey done by the Sensory services Team, most of the people in the present society have little knowledge concerning ways of handling the people with disability essentially the deaf , social workers not being excluded.

Many complain that they do not have enough financial resources to support or help these people; they find it expensive to access the mental health services which are located far from their residential areas or lack of enough money to pay for the hospital bills. Although some civil rights legislation, for example, the Disability Discrimination Act (UK 1995), has tried to fight for their rights, these people still feel stigmatized by the existing cultures which portrays them as different from the ordinary people because of the stereotypic view points associated with their conditions.

While a lot of research is required concerning this particular topic, present evidence indicates that the prevalence rates of problems of mental health among deaf people are significantly higher than those that face normal people. Some studies indicate that the rate of mental health among deaf people may actually be twice that of normal individuals. As a result service delivery should be sensitive to the multiple needs of deaf people in our society. Campaigns and policies that are aimed at promotion of mental well being should actually take into account this particular issue facing the deaf community, because the ability to communicate is actually the center of good mental health.

As a result the deaf should not encounter any considerable difficulty when trying to access rightful services that are supposed to promote effective mental health (Altshuler 2000). My research will be based on the issues that we as social workers can consider to ensure that at least a large number of children and adults with sensory loss access mental health services if not all. This is essential so as to reduce the impacts on the affected children’s emotional or psychological well-being which affects the physical and mental development.

Like anybody else in the society, the physical challenged people such as the deaf need to grow up in the social environments enjoying all the resources available; including the schools, churches and health centers. The work of the social workers is to improve the lives of people and especially those with social problems such as illness or poverty; so as to carry on with their lives like anybody else in the societies (Checinski, 2004) .Although the government has played its part to help the development of the challenged people by putting up schools for the needy or implementing free learning programs for the poor.

These projects still need the reinforcement of the social workers who helps the various targeted groups to appreciate and access these resources. Their duties include reducing social problems encountered by the challenged people, for example stigmatizing the deaf. The research will be carried out in Southampton city of England and its limitation pertains to the fact that upon completion of the study, whatever findings attained will be generalized to the entire region. The findings will also help to know how the professionals in the mental health centers handle their patients so as get information whether they encourage or discourage them , and how we can identify ways of encouraging or promoting these people to access effective mental care.

Research aims and objectives Against the research question, the aims and objectives of the entire research study will be as follows: The general objective The general aim and objective of this study will be to research on what the social workers can do to promote, encourage and develop Deaf people (who use British sign language) to access mental health services.