Page 4729 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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points of contact is often family and friends. I am told that as a deaf person this means you would often reach out to another deaf person for help as someone who understands your culture and your language, someone with whom you do not have to struggle to make yourself understood.
This is a natural choice but it is not without impact. Like any community, the deaf community has people who serve as leaders or support figures and these people are often impacted personally as a result of providing this support. In addition to this, deaf friends who feel that they do not know how to help or who are unable to find supports for themselves or their friends when they are unwell are also impacted.
However, not all deaf and deafblind people will reach out for help, as one of the impacts of deafness is often isolation: isolation from family with whom you may struggle to communicate, isolation from friends who may not understand you when you speak to them in your language, and isolation from services that may not be equipped to provide an immediate response due to a lack of understanding.
We provide training for our community on how to provide mental health first aid. We provide training on cultural awareness for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and we provide training for service providers to engage with culturally and linguistically diverse groups. So it makes sense that we would seek to provide culturally appropriate training for the deaf community and the people and services that support them.
The ACT Health Directorate will investigate with stakeholders the potential for resources such as the development of an adapted mental health first aid course for deaf people. Such ideas are more than translating the written word or having an interpreter present at the training. This has a strong cultural component that will hopefully lead to resources that better enable deaf people in Canberra. This is important work that will take time to develop correctly and consultatively.
I would also like to talk about the mental health service sector and how we can ensure that it is accessible and as effective as possible in supporting deaf Canberrans. I understand the value placed on access to mental health support practitioners who are qualified in Auslan in the ACT. I also understand that people may feel vulnerable or uncomfortable describing mental illness to professionals whilst relying on interpreters to relay what they are expressing in a different language.
Unfortunately, skilled mental health practitioners trained in Auslan are in short supply and high demand across Australia. However, I am pleased to learn that the Deaf Society has commenced planning for an internship program for newly qualified interpreters that will support the ongoing development of their skills and technical ability as their career in Auslan interpreting continues.
This internship program aims to support level 2 interpreters to gain the necessary technical experience to practise as a level 3 in complex settings such as health, mental health and legal environments. This experience is a requirement of recognition and qualification as a level 3 interpreter, which allows them to provide services in complex and technical settings such as those I have just mentioned.
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