ABSTRACT
Training of mental health professionals to work with deaf clients, including those who are culturally Deaf, is a topic that has been addressed in the literature rarely, if at all. However, with increased focus on services for low-incidence populations with unique needs, the need to ensure the competency of professionals who provide these specialized services has become more critical in this era of accountability. Ensuring the competency of mental health professionals who work with the populations focused on in this book has been the unique focus for the authors of this chapter. All of us are part of the second and third waves of mental health clinicians with expertise in serving deaf clients with various linguistic and communication requirements. All of us have had significant exposure to what it means to grow up deaf in hearing environments, whether through personal exposure to deaf people, being deaf ourselves (Leigh and Sheridan), or through coursework and interaction with deaf people (Brice and Smith). This in part has sensitized us to the specific training needs of the students we have worked with in our training programs (clinical psychology, counseling, and social work) at Gallaudet University. To understand the importance of specialized in-depth training, we start by looking at the past and how it has evolved in terms of the need for mental health-specific training. We then turn to an exploration of issues related to the deaf population that require specialized training to ensure that mental health clinicians working with deaf people are competently prepared to provide the best possible mental health services. We also address how this training is best delivered and examine training issues that have emerged.
