Psychiatric Functioning, Resilience, and Recovery Among Deaf Consumers of Public Behavioral Health Services
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Psychiatric Functioning, Resilience, and Recovery Among Deaf Consumers of Public Behavioral Health Services Teresa V. Crowe1 Received: 13 April 2020 / Accepted: 5 November 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Studies of deaf individuals generally indicate higher levels of mental illness and negative mental health outcomes compared to the general population (Anglemyer and Crespi in JAMA 2018: 3285153, 2018; Dammeyer and Chapman in JAMA 52: 807–813, 2017; Fellinger et al. in JAMA 379: 17–23, 2012; Hall et al. in JAMA 52: 761–776, 2017; as reported by Leigh and Pollard (M. Marschark and P. Spencer (eds) Oxford handbook of deaf studies, language and education, Oxford University Press, UK 2003); Landsberger et al. in JAMA 45, 42–51, 2014; Pollard in JAMA 39, 147–160, 1994). The purpose of this study is to understand the demographic variables, psychiatric symptoms, functioning, resilience, and recovery in a sample of 11,703 deaf adults. The de-identified dataset was provided by Beacon Health Options and Maryland Behavioral Health Administration and includes information about deaf adult consumers of public behavioral health services. Findings revealed that compared to hearing consumers in the dataset, deaf consumers were less likely to live in independent housing. They were more likely to live in structured community housing, such as group homes, or be homelessness. They had higher rates of arrests and incarcerations, higher proportion of unemployment, and higher rates of cigarette smoking. Deaf participants had lower rates of substance use. Deaf women in this sample reported significantly more difficulty in managing their psychiatric symptoms than deaf men. Deaf people of color had lower levels of psychiatric dysfunction, lower resilience, and greater recovery compared to white participants, which was inconsistent with other studies of people of color. Younger participants had significantly more difficulty with psychiatric symptoms and functioning than those in the older groups. Those who were 31–55 years old had higher resilience than those who were older than 56 years old. The author offers several recommendations for further research of the mental health of deaf populations, especially round race, age, and gender. Keywords Deaf · Mental health · Behavioral health · Resilience · Psychiatric functioning · Recovery
Introduction Nearly one in five Americans report having a mental illness (National Institute of Mental Health 2019). Though types and degrees of severity range, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, defines a mental disorder as “… a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning” (American Psychiatric Association 2013). In terms of psychosocial functioning, mental illnesses * Teresa V. Crowe [email protected]
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