Serving Severely Emotionally Disturbed Deaf Youth - Alabama ...

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Statewide Deaf Children’s Services Page 11In almost all cases, deaf children who end up in an RTC do so with ahistory of inappropriate and inadequate interventions that did not take intoaccount the specialized needs of visual communication and the nuancesof Deaf culture (Willis & Vernon, 2002). Deaf children often arrive at RTCswith an extreme feeling of powerlessness which may cause them to lashout at staff or draw staff into conflicts. The powerlessness derives from thesense that the adults in their lives would not communicate with them, andperhaps even viewed their deafness as a medical problem – one to besolved – rather than as a social problem requiring accommodation (Mason& Braxton, 2004). The adults in their lives may even resent their deafnessfurther exacerbating the mental health problems that the children face.Providing effective treatment for children who have such a challengingclinical presentation is a lengthy and complicated process that requiresattending to not just the child, but also the entire social systemsurrounding the child. In other words, treatment requires a continuum ofcare.A true continuum of culturally affirmative care for deaf children means thatservices are available in a variety of settings and are customizable to meetthe specific clinical needs of the child. Ideally, there should be a range ofservices form in-patient to outpatient services, available in the home andin the school. It also means that such a program would have strong tieswith schools serving deaf students. Regrettably, this is rarely the case.
Statewide Deaf Children’s Services Page 12For this article, seven RTCs where examined. Four of them have sometype of relationship with a state school for the deaf (Children's SeashoreHouse in eastern Pennsylvania, Buckeye Ranch in Ohio, Pressley Ridgein western Pennsylvania, and Desert Hills in New Mexico). The level ofthe relationship varies from program to program.To illustrate the variance of how programs operate, on one hand there isthe PRIDE Program, run by Pressley Ridge in collaboration with theWestern Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. Educational services areprovided on the campus in a school setting which is co-facilitated by stafffrom Pressley Ridge and WPSD. Group homes located off campus, but invery close proximity, are run by Pressley Ridge. Students move along acontinuum of levels of support depending on how they are coping andtheir ability to maintain. A student can be served entirely by PressleyRidge, partly mainstreamed into either the regular WPSD classrooms ordorms, fully mainstreamed into the classrooms or the dorms or somecombination thereof. Additionally, some students reside in therapeuticfoster homes rather the dorms or group homes. This continuum allows fora great deal of individualization of treatment.By contrast, the Desert Hills program in Albuquerque is embedded in alarger program for hearing children. All services are provided in residence
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Serving Severely Emotionally Disturbed Deaf Youth - Alabama ...

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