Wayne Harvel
3/27/2008
Deaf and Substance Abuse
Right now, I work as a drug and alcohol
counselor and I love what I do. I never really understood much about
substance abuse until I started going to school and learning more
about it. I was encouraged to continue my education further then
just chemical dependency studies and so I am continuing my education
until hopefully one day I complete graduate school. As I took
general education classes, I tried my best to relate the material to
counseling and substance abuse treatment. I have been able to do
that to the most part including even classes like Greece history and
statistics. However, I knew eventually that I would have to take a
second language class to graduate from Sac State. I decided to take
ASL because I believe in my own mind it would be easier for me to
take then taking Spanish. I never knew how I could tie ASL into
substance abuse treatment however; I realize that there is a need
for treatment programs and counselors for the deaf communities.
In California, there is a need in certain counties for residential
programs for either deaf interpreters or counselors to help in
substance abuse treatment. Edward Rios stated that if had not been
for Silverlake Ranch, he probably would be dead from his substance
abuse problem (Kelly, 1998). Working with people with substance
abuse problems, I see that even people without hearing problems have
a hard time getting treatment and I can imagine it must be even
harder for someone who is also deaf to find treatment not only for
their addiction but also be able to deaf support. Residential
treatment is a big factor in helping people get clean and sober and
another factor that goes a long with residential is transitional
living. In Baltimore City, the city has a big problem because many
of the deaf clients are unable to find transitional living once they
are done with residential. They have a hard time staying clean and
end up relapsing after a few months because there is not a big
support network for the deaf community especially when it comes to
substance abuse and helping them stay clean (Pash, 2005).
In New York and New Jersey, the cities are trying ways to help with
the problems facing the deaf population when it comes to substance
abuse. They have came up with new survey techniques and technology
to help with the assessment and screening process to better help
with the needs of the deaf client. They realize there is a need for
a lot more funding to help treat substance abuse among the deaf
(Lipton, 2007). I also understand the issue that this may cause
because in the treatment program I work with funding is a big
problem. If our program is not funded then the ability to give
proper treatment to clients is impaired. This must be hard for many
treatment programs because there is not a lot of funding for the
tools needed to cater to the deaf community when it comes to
substance abuse but it sounds like they are doing the best to
develop tools to help with the problem.
I hope by taking this class I could one day later help a client who
happens to be deaf get through treatment and face their substance
abuse program. When I first took ASL, I never realized how it could
improve my job as a counselor and I now realize how might be a
benefit and necessary to help a certain group of people who are
underserved when it comes to substance abuse.
References:
Kelly, David (1998). Man finds place to overcome drugs A deaf user,
unable to kick his habits in traditional programs, finds a place
with support and sign language interpreters. The Press -
Enterprise,p. B01. Retrieved March 26, 2008, from ProQuest Newsstand
database.
Pash, Barbara (2005). Deaf And Addicted; A
Baltimore woman founded and heads a unique program for deaf people
with substance abuse. Baltimore Jewish Times, 286(3), 40. Retrieved
March 26, 2008, from Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW) database.
Lipton, Douglas S.; Goldstein, Marjorie F
(1997). Measuring substance abuse among the deaf. Journal of Drug
Issues v27 p733-54 Fall '97. Retrieved March 26, 2008, from
WilsonWeb database.