Deaf Mental Health
Battle in Missouri

By Leonard Hall

The surprising fact is that the hearing staff members who performed mental health services for the deaf people were not laid off or terminated. Only those deaf or hard of hearing staff members were released from their jobs.

The deaf mental health services program in Missouri was set up in response to a suicide of a deaf man who was under the care of the Kansas City, Missouri mental health center in the late 1980s. The center had no staff members or social workers who could communicate in sign language with the deaf man.

Through the 1990s, Missouri provided a budget of $250,000 to start and run the statewide program serving hundreds of deaf people every year. The deaf community in Missouri was not satisfied with the mental health services. Other states, including Kansas, have established better mental health programs at local mental health centers.

The deaf services program at Johnson County Mental Health Center in Kansas has a variety of services to serve over 200 deaf people coming to the center every year. The center has deaf and hard of hearing staff members who can communicate in sign language.

As the result of the complaints coming from the deaf community in Missouri, a deaf study committee was established and met frequently to submit an executive summary called "Realizing the Vision" in 2001.

This is a good case of deaf staff members wanting to improve services for deaf people, which the hearing people would not allowed. The report detailed a need for $1.5 million to fund this program. Instead of accepting the report in 2002, Missouri DMH began a series of move to terminate the Deaf Services Program.

The director of the program was demoted and he left. Later, DMH announced that it was terminating the Deaf Services Program and sent employment termination notices to the deaf staff members.

During 2003, the deaf community began to hear more complaints about the lack of mental health services or poor services for deaf children and adults. As a result, a committee called "Deaf Mental Health PAH" has been established and Karin Stout is in charge.

The PAH committee is working on several goals. The PAH committee will be seeking deaf clients who were denied the proper mental health services because of their communication problems. A community education program will be formed to educate the deaf community about the needs of mental health services, including their rights under ADA.

The PAH committee is on the right course to obtain needed information. It will be an interesting battle to watch in Missouri.

(Leonard Hall writes this column weekly for the deaf community. He can be reached via email at legalnetwk@aol.com. )