Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
Belfast Telegraph
There has always been marvellous fellowship and co-operation between deaf people and professionals working with them on both sides of the border. On Tuesday we all met up at the Ballymascanlon Hotel, Dundalk, for the launch of the All Ireland Mental Health and Deafness Service.
This groundbreaking initiative, developed by the National Association for Deaf People (NAD) and the Northern Ireland Forum on Mental Health and Deafness, is offering an assessment and treatment service for deaf people in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Dr Margaret du Feu, a consultant psychiatrist who is deaf herself, will be delivering a much-needed service.
She will be assisted in the South by Stephen Browne, a specialist community psychiatrist nurse for deaf people.
Speakers at the meeting included Brian Symington, director of the RNID in Belfast and Niall Keane, chief executive of the National Association for the Deaf in Dublin, plus government speakers from both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
But the meeting came to life in a remarkable way when guest of honour, the Republic's President Mary McAleese, arrived for the new services' formal launch.
The President has a profoundly deaf brother and pulled no punches on the way deaf people are treated by society. "It's not their fault that communication with the hearing world is difficult," she said. "Deafness is frustrating and terribly isolating, and if the deaf person becomes alienated and upset when trying to communicate, then the blame rests with the people in full possession of their faculties. It is they who are stupid and not the deaf person.
"I know what I'm talking about because I grew up in a large household and in the hurly-burly of family life it was very easy to forget about my deaf brother. Animated discussions would often be interrupted by John tapping me on the arm and signing: 'I'm here. What's going on?'
"If this happens in the midst of happy family life how much more stressful must it be in ordinary society? It is extremely heartening to see organisations, north and south, working so well together to help those who are so greatly in need of that help."
Mary chatted with me about the time she was chair of the early form of JUDE (Joint Universities and Deaf Education), set up at Queen's University, Belfast, to facilitate entrance to university for deaf students, and at my invitation presented awards at the deaf schoolchildren's essay competition prize day in the Ulster Museum.
She is adamant on the importance of good communication in early life and it was wonderful to see this famous President of Ireland mingling unassumingly with deaf people about the room and chatting freely in sign language.
Dr du Feu told us she relies heavily on an interpreter when working over the border as our friends in the South use a sign language totally different to ours. She is trying hard to learn Irish sign language as her work is based on confidentiality and even a professional interpreter may be seen as intrusive.
Referrals are accepted from GPs, consultant psychiatrists, social workers and mental health teams. Clinics are held in Belfast, Cork, Craigavon, Derry, Dublin, Dundalk, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Letterkenny, Limerick and Omagh.
"Most deaf people who come for help are not mentally ill but some are suffering from depression, schizophrenia, etc, and need treatment, " she says. "Many others are not ill in the accepted sense but suffering from bad experiences and misunderstandings in life situations. People like this are still human and need support and counselling to help them cope."
For more information contact Rhonda Stitt at rhonda.stitt@sebt.n-i.nhs.uk
There has always been marvellous fellowship and co-operation between deaf people and professionals working with them on both sides of the border. On Tuesday we all met up at the Ballymascanlon Hotel, Dundalk, for the launch of the All Ireland Mental Health and Deafness Service.
This groundbreaking initiative, developed by the National Association for Deaf People (NAD) and the Northern Ireland Forum on Mental Health and Deafness, is offering an assessment and treatment service for deaf people in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Dr Margaret du Feu, a consultant psychiatrist who is deaf herself, will be delivering a much-needed service.
She will be assisted in the South by Stephen Browne, a specialist community psychiatrist nurse for deaf people.
Speakers at the meeting included Brian Symington, director of the RNID in Belfast and Niall Keane, chief executive of the National Association for the Deaf in Dublin, plus government speakers from both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
But the meeting came to life in a remarkable way when guest of honour, the Republic's President Mary McAleese, arrived for the new services' formal launch.
The President has a profoundly deaf brother and pulled no punches on the way deaf people are treated by society. "It's not their fault that communication with the hearing world is difficult," she said. "Deafness is frustrating and terribly isolating, and if the deaf person becomes alienated and upset when trying to communicate, then the blame rests with the people in full possession of their faculties. It is they who are stupid and not the deaf person.
"I know what I'm talking about because I grew up in a large household and in the hurly-burly of family life it was very easy to forget about my deaf brother. Animated discussions would often be interrupted by John tapping me on the arm and signing: 'I'm here. What's going on?'
"If this happens in the midst of happy family life how much more stressful must it be in ordinary society? It is extremely heartening to see organisations, north and south, working so well together to help those who are so greatly in need of that help."
Mary chatted with me about the time she was chair of the early form of JUDE (Joint Universities and Deaf Education), set up at Queen's University, Belfast, to facilitate entrance to university for deaf students, and at my invitation presented awards at the deaf schoolchildren's essay competition prize day in the Ulster Museum.
She is adamant on the importance of good communication in early life and it was wonderful to see this famous President of Ireland mingling unassumingly with deaf people about the room and chatting freely in sign language.
Dr du Feu told us she relies heavily on an interpreter when working over the border as our friends in the South use a sign language totally different to ours. She is trying hard to learn Irish sign language as her work is based on confidentiality and even a professional interpreter may be seen as intrusive.
Referrals are accepted from GPs, consultant psychiatrists, social workers and mental health teams. Clinics are held in Belfast, Cork, Craigavon, Derry, Dublin, Dundalk, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Letterkenny, Limerick and Omagh.
"Most deaf people who come for help are not mentally ill but some are suffering from depression, schizophrenia, etc, and need treatment, " she says. "Many others are not ill in the accepted sense but suffering from bad experiences and misunderstandings in life situations. People like this are still human and need support and counselling to help them cope."
For more information contact Rhonda Stitt at rhonda.stitt@sebt.n-i.nhs.uk