British Society for Mental Health and Deafness

The Deafness and Applied Psychology Special Interest Group (Deaf SIG) is a professional body of d/Deaf and hearing UK psychologists specialising in working with d/Deaf people. Comprised mostly of clinical psychologists working in the NHS and research psychologists working in applied fields of mental health and deafness, educational psychologists and counselling psychologists are also welcome to join. Most members are Chartered members of the British Psychological Society.

This group meets twice a year at a rotating venue to discuss issues pertinent to the field of mental health and deafness. Contact and sharing of information is encouraged at other times via an Internet discussion group. In this group all types of deafness and all ages of client are represented. Meetings include time for peer support, news of members, recruitment and training issues, updates of evidence-based information, conference details and feedback and discussion of new developments either clinically, academically or socio- politically. At each meeting there are presentations either from members of the group or from invited outsiders: a clinical case presentation and discussion, a presentation of a piece of new research and a report about an aspect of a relevant service provision.

Members of this group are highly qualified and experienced in their field and regularly present at conferences or publish work in this field. The benefit of the group to its members is a high calibre of challenging but supportive peer interaction. Given that the field of mental health and deafness is small it is often the case that professionals work in some degree of isolation. Professional and personal support from such a group benefits the individual and the recipients of their work. It also satisfies many of the requirements of the BPS for psychologists to receive continuing professional development and peer supervision

To those outside the field of mental health and deafness this group is available as a point of consultation. We are happy to be approached on clinical, ethical, academic or training matters.

Our clients' only commonality is their deafness. As with many areas of clinical specialty, our clients have difficulties that span a wide variety of other areas and require services specific to their other needs e.g. older adult services, child services, neuropsychology, eating disorders, learning disability services and physical heath provision. Thus, we would very much welcome liaison with our colleagues in other fields in order to be able to jointly provide physical and mental health services that meet the needs of deaf people with mental health problems in a way that equals the services received by hearing people with similar difficulties.

For those interested in joining the Deaf SIG the following Aims and Membership details may be useful. For further information please contact Mary Griggs, the secretary of the group, at Mary.Griggs@awp.nhs.uk .

The aim of the group is to provide a high standard of professional peer support and peer education to psychologists working with d/Deaf people.
It is important to us that we maintain a high level of scientific rigour and that, where possible, we utilize evidence-based information.
Psychologists may be working with clients with any type of deafness and with any cultural identity.
Psychologists may be working with clients of any age.
Psychologists should be working with predominantly d/Deaf clients for a part of their working week. (eg even if the psychologist only works one session a week with d/Deaf clients, during that time they are the 'psychologist with d/Deaf people' rather than having a generic case load that just happens to include one d/Deaf person).
Psychologists should be working with d/Deaf people in an applied context.
Originally, this group was intended for clinicians only. It was then recognized that research psychologists had a lot to offer this group and the membership criteria were widened to include researchers whose work was applied to clinical situations, on a non-voting basis.
For the purposes of this group, 'psychologist' is defined as those having postgraduate professional qualifications in psychology eg clinical psychologists, educational psychologists and counselling psychologists. Research psychologists are included as guided by point v)
Graduate assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists are welcome as non-voting members of the group.