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The rationale behind this project was driven by my recent practice learning
placement within a Sensory Disability team I was afforded the opportunity to work
in partnership with a number of deaf service users to promote their health and
well-being. I felt extremely deskilled as a practitioner when completing
assessments with individuals who struggled to understand spoken word or British
Sign Language (BSL). This literature review provided insight into the ethical
conflicts this communication barrier, which I now know as 'Language-deprivation'
causes for social work practitioners within Northern Ireland when completing
assessments and employing interventions in an anti-oppressive manner, with little
formal legislation, policy or service provision to protect either the service user or
practitioner. Furthermore the literature review detailed psychiatric symptoms
resulting from language deprivation and the services provided by sensory
disability teams within Northern Ireland and global service provision to support
individuals suffering from language deprivation.
Objectives:
Critically evaluate UK and international research and literature
Critically analyse UK and International legislation, policies and
procedures
Identify gaps in service provision with recommendations for
improvement.
Research strategy:
A combination of resources, in preparation for completing this case project ,were
utilised. Electronic research databases used included:
Psych Net,
Research Gate,
Web of Science and
Ulster University database 'Usearch'
Key concepts included "language deprivation" and "deaf mental health".
Furthermore searches were conducted on the Southern Health and Social Care
online 'SharePoint'.
Considering language deprivation is a fairly new term within deaf mental health
and complex in nature certain other resources have been included relevant to the
review. Congratulations to Aishling on getting a first class honours in her first
degree and for Liz Tanner (Southern Trust) for asking Aishling to share
her work.
It is great to see contributions from students and newly appointed
social workers. It is great to see the seed for evidence based/informed
practice and research mindedness from this very early stage.