BENGALURU: Last year, the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) introduced 259 Indian Sign Language (ISL) signs for mental health terms in collaboration with NGOs including V-shesh and Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health.
However, not many people including mental health professionals know about these signs that can be used to interpret with deaf people when they encounter mental health issues or even to understand the complex emotions they go through.
According to the Census 2011, a total of 2.68 crore persons in India were reported as having disabilities out of which 19% have hearing disabilities.
Joseph Romel of V-shesh is a job-coach, trainer and experienced interpreter with fluency in sign language.
"V-shesh and BALM worked together to suggest relevant signs for mental health terms like sad, depressed, anxious, insomnia, stressed etc and the ISLRTC included them in their vocabulary and released those 259 signs last year on December 3."
December 3 is celebrated as the International Day for Persons with Disabilities.
Romel added, "Since then, we have conducted workshops across the country to educate and help deaf people learn these 259 signs to express terms related to mental health. However, mental health professionals are not aware of these signs yet. For now, we have trained people only in the deaf community to learn these signs."
Meanwhile, Lakshmi Sankaran, Director, Training at BALM, said, "While the ISLRTC has launched 259 signs, it is essential that the mental health services whether online or offline also have a sign language interpreter so that when deaf people approach these professionals with mental health issues or even express distress, they are able to communicate with them in the sign language. For instance, services like Tele MANAS and iCall, which are telephonic services for people to reach out during distress, can have a sign language interpreter who can talk to deaf people via video calls."
She added, "Similarly, the mental health professionals need to have an interpreter at their centres or hospitals to provide services for free or at an affordable price when deaf people approach them. We can't just have these signs in our vocabulary, it is the need of the hour that all people irrespective of whether they are deaf must be trained to use these signs."
Together V-shesh and BALM have trained hundreds of deaf people across India in these 259 signs so that they can be buddies for each other during times of distress.
When TNIE contacted psychologists in private hospitals in Bengaluru, they clarified the lack of an interpreter for sign language.
A psychologist from a private hospital said, "We were not aware of the sign language used to express mental health terms. But if it is imparted, then we are open to learning it so that deaf patients can be helped."