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The deaf community struggles daily with stigma, prejudice, and communication, but that’s not all: medical studies have found that deaf people suffer from mental health issues at about twice the rate of the general population, and also have real problems accessing needed mental health services.

The mental health issues common in the deaf community includedepression,anxietyand severe illnesses such asbipolar disorderandschizophrenia.

Mental Health in the Deaf Community

Lots of people have some hearing loss — between 15% and 26% of the population, according to one study.But it’s a different issue to be profoundly deaf, especially if you became deaf before you had a chance to learn spoken language. About seven in every 10,000 people fall into this category, and most regard themselves as a cultural minority that uses sign language instead of spoken language.

Struggles to function in a hearing world can lead to mental health issues. In one study involving hearing-impaired individuals, some 41% said they believed that communication problems coupled with family stresses and overall prejudice could cause or contribute to suicidal depression, substance abuse or violent behavior in some cases.

If your loved one is deaf and having suicidal thoughts, contact theNational Suicide Prevention Lifelineat988for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.

If your loved one is deaf and having suicidal thoughts, contact theNational Suicide Prevention Lifelineat988for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.

For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.

Bullying of deaf children also may be common at school, and deaf boys and girls are much more likely to be victims ofsexual assault.

Communication Needed, but Scarce

Mental health services are difficult for deaf people to access. One small study involving 54 people found that more than half hadn’t been able to find mental health services that they, as deaf people, could use.

In addition, psychiatric conditions such as mood disorders are frequently under-diagnosed in the deaf community,in large part due to communication difficulties that include:

Reading and writing aren’t an adequate substitute for spoken language in this context. Hearing loss interferes quite a lot with vocabulary, and so many deaf high school graduates read and write at a grade-school level.

In addition, lip-reading is far from 100% accurate — the average deaf adult can lip-read only 26% to 40% of speech.

How to Access Mental Health Services

Because of these communication problems, the majority of participants in one study of deaf individuals found that the deaf preferred a deaf professional to provide them with mental health services. In addition, experienced interpreters are very important … but they’re only the first step in helping the deaf access adequate mental health services.

Issues with time are important in diagnosing mental disorders — questions such as “Have you experienced difficulty sleeping for one month or more during the past year?” or “for six months or more?” are common. However, these concepts are hard to describe in sign language, as are phrases such as “feeling on edge.”

Finally, questions in diagnostic interviews that rely on the knowledge of what it’s like to hear pose real difficulties: How does one ask someone who’s been deaf his whole life if he has been “hearing voices”?

Differences Important to Recognize

Mental health providers must also learn how to recognize and address the differences in how a deaf individual displays feelings and expressions from those who are hearing.

Also, while strong emotional displays are pretty much frowned upon in the hearing community, members of the deaf community count on the vivid expression of emotion to convey meaning. As a matter of fact, one study found that clinicians often labeled rapid signing as a symptom of psychotic behavior rather than the change of mood that was actually indicated. And, there are few signs within sign language that can account for subtle changes in mood.

What Can Be Done to Help the Deaf Community?

A research study of cultural and linguistic barriers to mental health found that many deaf people have a fear of being incorrectly committed because they are unable to communicate with the staff.One participant is quoted as saying, “Even if I were just asking for directions at the information desk [of a psychiatric hospital], miscommunication could lead to my being committed mistakenly … I don’t want to go there, even for a visit!”

This study further indicated that participants felt professionals erroneously consider a nominal level of communication to be adequate. One practitioner looked at bipolar disorder in patients who had become deaf before they learned to speak, and found that those making diagnoses often emphasized appearance over documented symptoms and other information.

While it will be difficult to solve these problems, some solutions are possible. Hearing-impaired people should be encouraged to consider careers in the mental health field, and mental health professionals should secure more translators to work with the mentally ill.

The National Association of the Deaf notes that deaf people have the right to push for referrals to mental health professionals who have experience working with those who are deaf or are hard of hearing.The organization also says that deaf people have the right to communicate “in the language and mode of communication that is effective for you,” and to clearly understand the diagnosis and recommendations for their treatment.

Clinicians who have little or no experience working with the hearing-impaired should use extreme caution and seek second opinions when diagnosing the deaf. In addition, research and effort are needed to bridge the language barriers which now make it so difficult to communicate.

12 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes.Mental Health Care for Deaf Individuals: Needs, Risk Factors, and Access to Treatment.

Kuenburg A, Fellinger P, Fellinger J.Health Care Access Among Deaf People.J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2016;21(1):1-10. doi:10.1093/deafed/env042

Fellinger J, Holzinger D, Pollard R.Mental health of deaf people.Lancet. 2012;379(9820):1037-1044. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61143-4

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Nelson C, Bruce SM.Children Who Are Deaf/Hard of Hearing with Disabilities: Paths to Language and Literacy.Educ Sci. 2019;9(2):134. doi:10.3390/educsci9020134

Black PA, Glickman NS.Demographics, Psychiatric Diagnoses, and Other Characteristics of North American Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Inpatients.J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2006;11(3):303-321. doi:10.1093/deafed/enj042

National Center for Special Education Research.Special Education Research and Development Center on Reading Instruction for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Speech reading.

Anglemyer E, Crespi C.Misinterpretation of Psychiatric Illness in Deaf Patients: Two Case Reports.Case Rep Psychiatry. 2018;2018:3285153. doi:10.1155/2018/3285153

National Association of the Deaf.Mental Health Services.

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