Integrating best practices into a culturally and linguistically sensitive depression management curriculum for a deaf population


Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

4184.0: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - Board 7

Abstract #113118

Toby Perlman, PhD¹, Dorothea DeGutis, MD¹, Melanie A. Estarziau, MPH², Carroll Cradock, PhD¹, Elizabeth Foster, MA¹, and Crystal Schwartz, BA³. (1) Behavioral Health Services, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, 938 West Nelson, Chicago, IL 60657, 773/296-3241, toby.perlman@advocatehealth.com, (2) Sinai Urban Health Institute, California at 15th St. Room K450, Chicago, IL 60608, (3) Sinai Health System, Deaf Access Program, California at 15th Street, Chicago, IL 60608, Cambodia

The challenge of designing a study that examines mental health issues among minority populations often requires modifying standard treatment and research protocols to better address the culture-specific experiences and capture the culture-influenced responses of the participants without sacrificing best practices and without compromising the generalizability of the study's results. A three-year collaborative study by Advocate Health Care's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program and Sinai Health System's Deaf Access Program has been examining the efficacy of an 8-week depression management curriculum with groups of depressed deaf individuals. The first year has focused on (1) developing a clinically sound curriculum that respects the face-to-face, visual nature of this population's language (American Sign Language), the strong sense of social community embedded within its culture, and the valued role that demonstration and storytelling hold as vehicles of communication among its community members, (2) examining the reliability of outcome measures which have been translated into American Sign Language and (3) completing a small pilot study. This presentation, after providing an overview of the curriculum and outcome measures, will focus on year two activities. It will address what the pilot study revealed, how the results of the pilot have been applied to refining the study's curriculum, methodology and design, and what the preliminary data analyses of year two are beginning to reveal and suggest. In addition, this presentation will discuss how to adapt and apply the minimally English, highly pictorial depression management materials used in this program to other low health literacy, underserved minority populations.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, the participants will be able to

(1)Discuss the steps towards developing a culture-specific depression management study without sacrificing best practices;
(2)Describe what the preliminary data analyses of this study are beginning to reveal and suggest;
(3)Adapt and apply the depression management materials for a deaf population that were developed for this study to other minority populations.

Keywords: Depression, Deaf Patients

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Mental Health Poster Session IV

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA