Supporting Deaf adult survivors of childhood abuse

3 February 2020

NAPAC is looking at ways to make its services accessible to more adult survivors of childhood abuse as part of Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week, which runs from 3-9 February 2020. We are working with the British Society for Mental Health & Deafness to develop training for counsellors and therapists who work with adult survivors of childhood abuse who are Deaf.

Paul Redfern of the British Society for Mental Health & Deafness watch this

Around 145,000 people in the UK use British Sign Language as their preferred language. Through our partnership with the British Society for Mental Health & Deafness (BSMHD) we will be exploring how best to share our learning content with practitioners in the Deaf community, for example by translating our training content into British Sign Language.

NAPAC’s training courses are aimed at professionals wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the impacts of child abuse and neglect in adulthood and how to apply trauma-informed practice to effectively support and work with adult survivors of childhood abuse and neglect. We have successfully trained NHS staff including IAPT services staff such as psychological wellbeing practitioners (PWPs), high intensity therapists (HITs), health and social care organisations, police forces, council staff, and safeguarding teams. NAPAC’s training is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS), the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

The British Society for Mental Health & Deafness (BSMHD) will be training NAPAC’s staff of 12 people and its telephone support line volunteers

Gabrielle Shaw, NAPAC’s CEO said: “Improving access to trauma-informed services will help Deaf survivors to more readily recover from the underlying trauma that causes problems in adulthood. It is the emotional aspects of sexual abuse in childhood which many adult survivors may struggle with, impacting their ability to trust, their intimate relationships and leaving them with feelings of guilt and shame.”

Notes to editors:

NAPAC and BSMHD use the capital ‘D’ to denote Deaf people whose language is British Sign Language and who see themselves as members of a Linguistic and Cultural minority.

• British Society for Mental Health & Deafness (BSMHD) https://bsmhd.org.uk/

• Find out more about NAPAC’s face-to-face training e-learning courses https://napac.org.uk/training/ #itsnotok2020

• Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week runs from 3rd February – 9th February 2020 http://sexualabuseandsexualviolenceawarenessweek.org/

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