Snap, Crackle & Pop!: This announcement about raising autism awareness by printing public service messages on cereal boxes came into our mailbox a couple of days ago. There is controversy surrounding this particular advertising campaign, mostly because some people who have autism and who are quite functional and happy with their lives, resent being labeled as having a “neurological disorder” …
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Jul
2006
Green Thumbs Up for Mental Health Benefits: When many people think of therapy, they are likely to imagine a therapist and client having a conversation while sitting across from each other in an office. While this is probably the most common scenario, there are, in fact, many other types of therapy that have been shown to have just as many …
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Jul
2006
No Boarding Pass for You: If you’re a Deaf traveler flying on your own in Thailand anytime soon, Thai AirAsia will not let you aboard. Just this week, the airline announced that anyone who is Deaf, blind, or has a disability cannot fly unaccompanied on any of its planes within the country. Officials explained that because they are a budget …
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Jul
2006
New Decree on Hospital Access to Interpreters
By: Deaf Counseling Center
Category: Laws, News, Psychology
Less Stress = Better Health: Good news from the Department of Justice. Laurel Regional Hospital in Maryland just signed a consent decree in which it agreed to comply with the ADA by providing interpreters to all patients and their families or companions. The hospital was sued by a group of Deaf people whose interpreting requests were not accommodated. The decree …
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Jul
2006
Sharon’s Frustrating Week Defining the ADA: What an experience I had at my doctoral program’s summer session last week. I am currently enrolled in Fielding Graduate University, the only APA-accredited distance learning program for clinical psychology in the USA. This means that instead of sitting in a classroom with professors and students, most of my classes are online seminars or …
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Jul
2006
A Different View of Psychology: For years, psychology has had a reputation of digging into people’s psyches, probing their pasts and coaxing them to share their deepest secrets, all with the ultimate goal of coming up with a label of one kind or another to diagnose whatever is “wrong” with them, their emotions, brains, relationships, lives, and so on. Tired …
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Jul
2006
Women in Science Face Biases: Yesterday’s Washington Post features a story about a neurobiologist who had a sex-change operation, switching from a female to a male (FTM = female to male). According to the story, after the scientist had his operation, he returned to work as a man and gave a talk. Another scientist, who did not know that his …
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Jul
2006
We are Proud to Announce: Our ASC website has been voted a top rated mental health resource by Psych Central viewers. Since setting up our website over one year ago, we have heard from Deaf and hearing folks from all over the world. Many people ask us for referrals to psychotherapists in their areas. Others who are interested in working …
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Jul
2006
The Irony of “Inclusion”: Here’s an article on Deaf schools from our northern neighbors. In the same way as in the United States, Canadian Deaf schools face threats of closure as a result of the push toward “inclusion” or mainstreaming students. Money issues are usually the main reason for efforts to shut down Deaf schools or change them in major …
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Jul
2006
Healing Hounds: Service dogs have been around for years, with most of them accompanying blind, mobility impaired, and even some Deaf people. A growing number of people, however, are now relying on service dogs for assistance in other ways, including support as they deal with mental health issues. Psychiatric service dogs (PSDs) have been helping people with depression, anxiety, and …
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