A charity which has served more than 10,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing Hongkongers for nearly three decades will expand to meet the mental health needs of clients and carers.
Silence aims to launch a project to provide counselling, mental health talks, museum visits and forest outings for its beneficiaries next year, with funding from annual fundraising drive Operation Santa Claus (OSC).
The goal is to raise mental health awareness among people with hearing problems and their carers, help them relieve stress and encourage them to seek medical care if needed.
“Deaf people have the biggest problem in communication among people with disabilities. … People cannot tell by looking at them that they have a disability, so they think they are stupid,” Silence CEO Tsan Siu Yat-chan said. “Their problem impacts the entire family.”
Operations director Ken Ng Ka-ki said there was a misconception that deaf people could communicate through reading and writing, but many were unable to do so because hearing was the root of learning.
Many deaf people isolate themselves, Ng said, because they were unable to communicate, especially since few members of the public could use sign language.
