Misdiagnosing Deaf Clients with Psychotic Symptoms: The Importance of Considering the Likelihood of Language Deprivation as a Contributing Factor to Presenting Symptoms

Mental Health Professionals working with the Deaf population often find themselves unprepared, and even unaware, of the intensive and complicated needs their clients may present with, specifically regarding Deaf individuals that have experienced Language Deprivation. Historically, the presenting behavioral, emotional, and/or psychological symptoms of Deaf clients have most often been misdiagnosed as symptoms of a severe mental illness. However, researchers and professionals working in Deaf Mental Health Care have a strong body of literature to support the belief that symptoms of mental illness...Read more in the Deaf population might be caused by not having access to appropriate and/or effective language acquisition during critical early developmental stages. Moreover, without appropriate interventions to help facilitate effective language acquisition, learning the rules of social interaction, as well as many other critical life skills, Deaf individual will likely present with symptoms that closely resemble those of a severe mental illness, including symptoms of psychosis. Therefore, Mental Health Professionals working with the Deaf community should always be as thorough as possible when performing mental health assessments that are used for diagnosing a Deaf client. By implementing more appropriate assessment practices, regularly consulting with other knowledgeable professionals, and using extreme caution when diagnosing a Deaf client with any mental illness, clinicians will begin using techniques identified as “best practice”. As a result, Deaf clients that are referred for mental health assessments will have a greater opportunity to receive both appropriate, and effective, mental health services. Less...

Learning Objectives

Discuss how symptoms of mental illness/psychosis mirror symptoms caused by Language Deprivation
Evaluate assessment strategies to use during intakes and Diagnostic assessments
Describe how “Best practice” happens when consultation with other professionals is valued and sought out

Friday, March 19, 2021

Live Interactive Webinar

03:00 PM EDT - 04:30 PM EDT

EARN 1 CE Credit Hours

About the speaker

Kerry D. Ingram, LPC-S, TA-S, Ed.S.

Program Director, Deaf Mental Health at Little Creek Behavioral Health

Kerry D. Ingram is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Arkansas and is the Program Director for Deaf Services at Little Creek Behavioral Health in Conway, AR. Recently, in 2019, Kerry led in the efforts of writing a Bill of Rights Act for Arkansas that established standards of care in Deaf Mental Health services, now known as ACT644. This is the first Bill in the country to have passed through legislation, with or without the threat of a lawsuit. In Arkansas, Kerry continues to work with other mental health professionals to create awareness regarding the need for specialized mental health services for the Deaf community. Outside of Arkansas, Kerry also provides consultation to professionals from various states regarding the development of specialized standards of care in Deaf Mental Health. At this time, Kerry is one of the only licensed providers in the state of Arkansas that specializes in providing Deaf Mental Health Services to Deaf clients that have experienced Language Deprivation. The Deaf residential Program at Little Creek, “Deaf S.T.A.R.T.”, is also the only specialized treatment facility in the Southern United States.

CE Information - Earn 1 CE Credit Hour

CE Approvals

American Psychological Association

CE Learning Systems, LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CE Learning Systems maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work

CE Learning Systems SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0060.

New York Education Department for Licensed Mental Health Counselors

CE Learning Systems, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0072.

Texas Board of Social Work Examiners

CE-Go, a service of CE Learning Systems, is approved to offer continuing education courses by the Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners (#6460). CE Learning Systems maintains responsibility for the courses.

CE Process Info

Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by his/her licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend "live" (in real-time) to earn CE credits.

Before the event, you will receive an email from CE-Go with access to the virtual event. After the event, you will receive access to your evaluation and continuing education certificate via a personalized "attendee dashboard" link, hosted on the CE-Go website. This link and access to the virtual event will be sent to the email account you used to register for the event.

Upon accessing the CE-Go "attendee dashboard", you will be able to:

Complete evaluation forms for the event
Download your continuing education certificate in a PDF format

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE-Go process, please contact CE-Go at 888-498-5578 or by email at support@ce-go.com Please Note: Emails for this event will come from "support@ce-go.com".

Please make sure to check your spam/junk folder in case those emails get "stuck". We'd also suggest "whitelisting" support@ce-go.com. This tells your email client that you know this sender and trust them, which will keep emails from this contact at the top of your inbox and out of the junk folder.