#deaf community
Do yourself a favor and watch the film, CODA.
Well it has been a while since I put a little something on here. I’ve been wanting to write something for quite awhile but I couldn’t find the words of passion. Till tonight. And I needed to share my thoughts on tonight’s topic; Recovery Month.
September is national recovery month supporting and promoting recovery from substance misuse, both drugs and alcohol.
So many substance misuse services up and down the UK are sharing positive stories, recovery tips, information on how to refer into their service for supporting in overcoming addiction. Which is great! But what I have noticed is the lack of accessibility for the D/deaf community. The reason why I’m thinking about this tonight is because I’ve seen some videos of people sharing their stories. Story of hope to those who don’t believe that they cannot win their battle against addiction.
And they weren’t subtitled!! Which isn’t much of a shock, really. But at the same time, this shouldn’t be a shock. It is 2021 afterall. Well, I’m going off track here. Accessibility here is a big ongoing issue.
What I wanted to say was that addiction is a big issue, and can be a hidden issue in the deaf community. This often goes in hand with poor mental well-being. I read a few studies that estimated there are more D/deaf people that have substance misuse issues, compared to the hearing community. The studies are american. It was hard to find anything related to UK. As mentioned before, poor mental well-being often goes hand in hand with addiction. D/deaf community already have issues in accessing mental health services. These barriers are:-
- Accessibility barriers. Lack of information shared via sign language, no subtitles on videos, audios
- Lack of interpreters
- Support work who don’t understand issues affect the D/deaf community
- D/deaf people can be distrusting of hearing professional due to previous experience
- Stigma
- Lack of awareness
- Social isolation from the hearing community
Just to name a few. Theres loads more! and these will impact one’s seeking support.
Up and down the UK there are many services for substance misuse, but what are that actually doing to reach out to the deaf community. Appropriate services are far and few! If D/deaf people are already struggling to access health care services for both physical and mental health, why would they access a substance misuse service to experience the same issues. If one was able to access a substance misuse and managed to get adequate support in place for appointments, thats great. But a large part of the recovery process is outside formal sessions, such as groups where coping strategies are shared helping individuals learn new skills and not to feel alone in their struggles. These group can be groups within substance misuse service or out in the community such as AA/NA or SMART recovery.
Honestly there is so much more that I want to write, but its getting late and I have a toddler who will wake in less than 6hrs. If I have time I will write more blog post!
This is something close to me. I never been addiction to Alcohol, but I have used it as a coping strategy for when I was losing a big chunk of hearing, going through 2 operations that resulted in severe tinnitus. Alcohol did take some of that pain away, but I was fortunate to have great support around me and was well integrated in the hearing community despite my struggles. Not everyone has that.
Also sorry for any errors! I wanted to write this before I went to bed.
Here some links to services/information that are accessible for D/deaf
www.rehab4addiction.co.uk/guides/overcoming-addiction-sensory-impaired I really dont like the use to the word impaired, but it doesnt include a short reading about addiction for UK D/deaf community.
https://signhealth.org.uk/ An amazing organistation!! They dont have specific addiction support but they have support those to access substance misuse services.
https://signhealth.org.uk/videotags/substance-abuse/ BSL videos around substance misuse. PLease share this link!
https://www.swlstg.nhs.uk/our-services/specialist-services/national-deaf-services
Heres some link to some studies that i’ve read (they’re american)
http://www.mncddeaf.org/articles/substance_abuse_ad.htm
I’ve been thinking about deaf cubs and why I keep putting it off? I came to the conclusion that, I feel that I’m not deaf enough. Now! What does that mean? It is because I don’t wear a cochlear implant, not 100% fluent in BSL or BSL isn’t my first language, or that I grew up in an hearing family not a deaf one. I explored where has this come from, and this has come from my perception of the deaf community and its culture. Growing up, the deaf community, I feel has been isolated to those who grew up in deaf families and BSL is the first language. Now time and technology has opened up the community to more people. After all deaf people come from all different backgrounds; some are born deaf, some become deaf in later life, some speak/sign/lip read, some are born into deaf culture and some are not, and you can be a part of the deaf community and still be hearing…
I have met many people feeling the same thing…
I need to ignore these perceptions of mine and focus on the positive… The deaf clubs are welcoming, and inclusive (most of the time), I can use sign language, and yes, it is not fluent but I got to start somewhere. Also I am Deaf… just like everyone within the deaf community. Only I have my own journey/story to how I gained my Deaf identity.
Here’s the comic I made for Seven Days, a Vermont alternate weekly newspaper, about Austine deaf school and VCDHH. They’re now trying to get help from the legislature for money for a position of single entry service for the deaf / hard of hearing Vermonters.
((please click on the pics for better viewing. Thanks tumblr for heavily compressing my images.))
Click here for Image description.
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Girlfriend and I, while watching a film: Shit, we don’t know what they’re saying, turn on ccs.
CC’s: [Speaks foreign language]
Us: Well that was helpful….
