Access For All: Mental Health and Stigma Within The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities

In this episode, we’re joined by Héctor Ramirez and Arash Behtash  as we discuss mental health and stigma within the Deaf and hard of hearing communities. 

The Access For All Podcast Series aims to explore a variety of topics related to the intersection of Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind, Partially sighted, visually impaired and physically disabled individuals lives as it relates to mental health, well-being and the accessing of mental health services.

The Access For All podcast series is meant to create awareness, reduce stigma, educate and create opportunity for discussion around issues related to the intersection of physical disability and mental health. Through sharing personal stories, challenges, and strengths we will discover how a physical disability can affect our mental health and how the state of our mental health can affect our physical body. We will also explore societal stigma around disability that can affect our mental health and ways that we can overcome them or advocate to change legislation and collective perceptions.

This project has been developed by the private, non-profit organization, Cross Cultural Expressions, in partnership with the Access For All, Underserved Cultural Communities sub-committee of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. For more information on this project or to learn about Cross Cultural Expressions, please visit our website at crossculturalexpressions.org. To receive referrals or resources to mental health services, please call the LACDMH Access Help-line at 1-800-854-7771.

Transcript

START OF TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Madison

Hi everyone. My name is Madison Buteyn and I would like to welcome you to the fifth of a series of six podcasts created by Cross Cultural Expressions in partnership with the Access for All Underserved Cultural Communities Subcommittee of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. During this series, we will be exploring a variety of topics related to the intersection of the deaf, hard of hearing, blind, partially sighted, visually impaired and physically disabled individuals lives as it relates to mental health, wellbeing and the accessing of mental health services. This is an opportunity for members of these communities to sit together and discuss concerns, share resources, and give insight as to the work that can be done to keep individuals and communities uplifted and living their best lives. Before I introduce our wonderful guest, I wanted to make sure to share with everyone the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health's Access Helpline number for Mental Health Services and Support. Please call the 24 over seven helpline at 1-800-854-7771. And this episode we are joined by Kelsey Ledesma, Alex Elliot, Manu McLean, as well as Mastaneh Moghadam, licensed clinical social worker and executive director of Cross Cultural Expressions. The opinions and views expressed by the hosts and guests of the Access for All podcast do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health as a whole. The content is shared for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice, and listeners should consult a health care professional with any medical questions and issues they have. 24/7 mental health support is available through Lakme's Helpline at (800) 854-7771 or by calling or texting 988. All right. So let's get into this. First off, thank you both for being here. We're really excited to have you on this episode. I just wanted to give you both the floor and have you introduce yourself and kind of how you are related to the deaf community and the hard of hearing communities.

[00:02:04] Arash

Hi everyone. And it's me Arash Behtash. And I was born hard of hearing and I started wearing hearing aid when I was 11, so I went to normal school until I was 11. And then my doctor told me to wear hearing aid and I kept going to regular school with hearing students until I graduated from university. So I consider myself as hard of hearing. Hearing impaired, basically.

[00:02:46] Madison

Thank you.

[00:02:47] Arash

You're welcome.

[00:02:49] Hector

Hello. Yeah. Hola. My name is Hector Ramirez, and so am I'm autistic, and I have a mental health condition. But I'm also hard of hearing. I develop my hearing loss later on in life. I am a survivor of police violence. Uh, my family, um, uh, tried to get mental health services for me and, uh, while calling the Department of Mental Health instead of getting one of those, uh, emergency response units and law enforcement. When law enforcement got the call, it, the message was that it was somebody who was mentally ill, severely on drugs. And when the law enforcement officers showed up, uh, he really overreacted. And, uh, while trying to engage with me, ended up hurting me. When he pinned me down to the floor, he, uh, he slammed me so hard on the floor that he actually broke, uh, part of my hearing, Bones. And then later on, I ended up getting additional injuries on my other ear. So I have a mixed hearing loss. I have complex hearing loss in both ears wear hearing aids. But I'm very involved with the disability community as well as the hard of hearing community. I am a commissioner for the State of California's Commission on Disability and Access, and I've been a disability rights advocate for most of my life. So I'm really, really glad to be having this particular opportunity to share my story and definitely advance the issues impacting individuals who are hard of hearing and deaf. Thank you for.

[00:04:23] Madison

Thank you for sharing and for being so honest, both of you. I think we just wanted to jump right in and kind of talk about more of your experiences with regard to mental health and even stemming into potential stigmas that you felt have been involved in your mental health journey.

[00:04:42] Arash

I didn't have any mental I mean, consulting and consultation and. Because I never had an opportunity to have access to that. So basically, I did all this thing by myself and by reading articles and. Experienced and. Yeah, I should have done it before, but nobody could give me resources or, you know, and I didn't have enough information about mental health, so. Honestly, this is the first time I've heard about mental health within deaf and hearing impaired people. So I'm kind of new to this, but I can answer some of your questions, so.

[00:05:55] Madison

Oh yeah. Thank you. I'm happy that this is sort of your first introduction to this, so thanks for coming to this space.

[00:06:02] Hector

Yeah. And I think it's interesting because for me is I come from an institutional background institutionally and so and I've been in the system way before the Americans with Disabilities Act and then afterwards really have been engaged in the system trying to access mental health services as an autistic person who later on had to utilize mental health services, it felt like it was a totally different world. I also didn't know really where the resources were. Traditionally, different disability communities only go to one place for services and that's it. And it wasn't, I think, really until the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act that many of us were able to finally able to start accessing or have mental health services covered, you know, both by the public system and the private system. Because if you had more than one disability, you were considered to have a pre-existing condition. So that's a lot of extra and harder to find. And so the Affordable Health Care Act and combination with a lot of our other disability rights, like the Americans with Disability Act, Rehabilitation Act, the Lanterman Act, I mean, we have a lot of disability rights that's rapidly were brought together and so many of us were, for the first time, really aware that we could start accessing mental health services. But because sometimes there wasn't a lot of conversation within our disability communities about mental health services, we really didn't even know that we could be part of more than one community accessing services.

[00:07:33] Hector

After my hearing loss was very interesting because it was an additional barrier that the system had because they weren't at all prepared to deal with individuals that had disabilities in general, particularly the additional disabilities. So in trying to get accommodations to go to the doctor or to even participate in sessions was very difficult. And it was an additional challenge to to get the system to do it. Things have changed dramatically over the years, but it's still a lot, a lot of a lot of barriers and definitely a lot of stigma. Um, sometimes asking for accommodations or having to be asking for accommodations over and over will put us we'll get us an additional diagnosis in our, in our files as being aggressive, combative, argumentative. Some of us even end up getting additional diagnoses because we try to advocate for ourselves. I myself have had I've have had retaliatory diagnosis of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder because I'm somebody that realized and know that I could request accommodations. So I became used to going to different settings and asking for accommodations, and they were like, What are you talking about? You're making it up, or you should be glad that you're getting this service like or And it was like, No, but I can't even understand what what is being said. And so for many of us even asking for accommodations when you're able to get them, you know, can come with additional barriers, you know, sometimes people don't necessarily understood how having hearing loss in itself in a world that is not accessible, it can cause significant amount of mental health stresses.

[00:09:21] Hector

And I'll give you an example. In my family, before I realized how severe my hearing loss was, we I started having a lot of arguments with my family and relationship problems because I would I couldn't understand clearly what they were saying and I would misunderstand them. And sometimes my brain will try to like interpret or try to make sense of what was said. And it would be like, what did you just say? Or I would say, like, what? What, what? And so people thought that I was being rude or actually some of my family members even thought that I was becoming that that I had developed some sort of cognitive issue because I kept asking over and over or that I was misunderstanding. And, you know, that lack of awareness for myself, for my family and, you know, how that really impacted really led to additional things. Definitely a lot of anxiety, paranoia, concern, you know, because I wasn't sure what was going on. Depression, isolation, um, you know, even difficulty. Sometimes even being with friends going out was very difficult to be able to understand even today.

[00:10:26] Hector

And then even having things like hearing aids, it took me almost ten years because they were so expensive, so expensive. It took me ten years to get my medical approved, my hearing aids. And and they would break so easily that if they break, that's it. You had to wait until whenever that thing could be afforded. So not having a hearing aid or getting it fixed meant that, you know, it was significant challenges. Um, I I'm not somebody who grew up learning ASL but had to kind of develop it or learn it. To kind of try to survive. But it wasn't necessarily part of what I needed. And so it it had a lot of implications that you normally or people you wouldn't think are related to mental health, but they are because struggling to get access to like the equipment that you need or the accommodation having an understanding of how it impacting also impacts your mental health. And it felt like the fight was on my own and sometimes it felt like I was just like crazy. Like, no, I'm not hearing or something. It was like that self kind of justification. But it was the internal stigma that also kind of developed. So and it's also some of the challenges that I think sometimes some of us experience when trying to explain to our mental health providers some of these challenges that we deal with.

[00:11:53] Madison

Thank you for sharing. First off, but also wanted to ask when you were kind of dealing with these barriers or maybe still are dealing with them and you are feeling like you kind of have no support and are feeling alone, like what tools do you call upon in order to feel less alone or like that? You can overcome these challenges of not having access to mental health therapies.

[00:12:17] Hector

They're very maladaptive tools. So I'll tell you the truth, because there's really a significant void in deficit and services. Um, you know, like here in L.A County, we have one large deaf and hard of hearing populations. We have not been able to have, like, deaf or hard of hearing service providers working with adults for over four years. And, you know, we have such and the reason for that is, is varied. You know, the the the knowledge was not there, the funding was not there, service providers were not there people, clinicians, lack of understanding. And so sometimes we go to like other peers for support. Um, that was very difficult, almost impossible during the pandemic. Um, you know, so a lot of us really were left on our own. So, you know, definitely during the pandemic we saw a significant rise. And even even like for myself, you know, maladaptive coping skills really mean like drinking, you know, that was like to try to self-medicate. But I think more than anything, the the community aspect was was a big one. And advocacy, I think became like a like a thing of necessity, not because I necessarily enjoyed it or wanted to do it. So really trying to find spaces where others could help me advocate for this. And this is where the the USC that the Department of Mental Health created for people with disabilities became the only option really, for me to find that support. And like once a month for a couple of hours, you know, and we were all dealing with the same things. And I think just understanding that other people were struggling at a similar level, first of all, made it made it easier for me to to cope because I wasn't alone, uh, experiencing this.

[00:14:10] Hector

But I also found support because we were all wanting to do this. And I think that's something that we had to really kind of develop because, you know, the pandemic really severe severed a lot of those resources that we had had before the pandemic that we struggled to do. And right now, pretty much they're gone. And so, you know, there's very few agencies in L.A. County and in the state that are able to provide services to us. And you know, thankfully like remote meetings like this have allowed many of us an opportunity to really find community and not be so alone because it has been incredibly isolating, incredibly isolating. And for my peers, like some of the things that I have heard during the pandemic, you know, the isolation has led to suicidality. Some people attempting rises in domestic violence, people just staying with their app because they can't get anything else. And so we know that that kind of space of community advocacy is so much needed because there's a lot of folks out there that are pretty much just trying to survive but in their on their own, you know. And so I think more than anything, things like this where we can kind of like it's like, hello, this is really happening, or like it's not just me. Uh, really? It really kind of offer like the most basic thing that I could kind of hope for.

[00:15:40] Madison

Well, I definitely I'm glad that you can find community and that that's been really helpful for you. And then also thank you for being an advocate. I know you said that it wasn't an easy road to get there, but we're grateful that you're in this space and then wanted to extend this on to you. Arash is have you like, what is your experience with accessibility?

[00:16:01] Arash

Okay. And what do you mean by accessibility to mental health or to mental health?

[00:16:09] Madison

But just with everyday life things also, however you want to interpret it, it can be as broad as you'd like.

[00:16:15] Arash

Okay, So, you know, sometimes when I travel and when I travel by airplane and then or, you know, mostly airplane. So when they announce some messages sometime I cannot don't have any closed caption. So I missing I have to ask the next person what's going on. What did they say. So and you know, I don't have a problem asking people about that. But the feeling that I cannot be independent, that worries me a little bit. Meaning, for instance, if I go if I travel, I ask the next person, okay, what did they say? No problem. They explained to me what's going on or I had some experience and like and sometimes when I go, as Hector said, when I go out to something, it's noisy and waiting, coming. And it's hard to communicate. I mean, I have to leave and here at the same time. So sometime we have communication issues. They do not hear what I'm saying or I cannot understand what they are saying. So it’s kind of a miscommunication. Makes me a little bit. I'm not saying I'm depressed. No, and I'm not a depressed person, but it makes me feel a little bit sad. But I said, okay, it's fine and it is what it is. So in my experience and let me bring an example, we have some barriers, but it doesn't mean that we cannot do anything. If you go to public places, if you restroom, if the first one is closed, then you don't need to waste time to wait for that person to leave. You go to the next one. So for deaf and hard of hearing people, it's like that. We move on. If it happens, we move on. But. My pain in moving on the daily basis. Sometimes it's stressful. For, for instance, today, more than okay, tomorrow do the thing. But in two days. Three days. It puts Thomas Smith for me. The.

[00:19:19] Arash

I think by.

[00:19:21] Arash

Accessibility So far we have a relay service, meaning that you can call the operator and then the operator calls the third person. So I talk to them or write to them, and then the operator talk to the third person third party, and then whatever they say, they write it for me. So it is very useful. It's good, but not every place has it. Or, you know, sometimes when I call people with relay service, they hang up. They hang up immediately because they think that it is advertisement or something. So they don't even bother to wait for the operator to explain to them. So I have to keep asking this operator, calling them again and again until someone answers the call. So and I experienced I experienced a lot, especially when I try to make appointment with doctors because they they have to do everything fast. They don't wait for patients. So when the operator says, Hey, there is a deaf or hard of hearing patient calling them, and then they say what is really service? We don't have time. They hang up. The and I and pay attention to that because I accepted the fact. But accepting the fact it doesn't mean that I move on 100%. Eventually it's has some effect on my mental. So this is my point.

[00:21:19] Hector

If if definitely if what she really mentioned, it's a big thing and it's particularly difficult when trying to access health services. Um, and for me, I'm a person of color. I'm a, I'm native and I'm a large male. And so sometimes even when engaging in those things, it's superfrustrating because somebody feels like I'm doing it on purpose. And it's really it feels like it feels more than a microaggression. What, what what do we feel is the actual discrimination and the audism. Um, you know, the lack of an accessibility having to like I hate. Going or making appointments with my doctors for the same reason. And that means for somebody like me that we end up having to delay my medical care or forego my medical care because it's so frustrating. Oh, and this is over and over and over, even with the same health providers in my mental health. And that's why I work really hard with my mental health system to try to change it, because I'm usually super frustrated, very frustrated, and my blood pressure just goes way up. And, you know, it's it's really difficult. And even days afterwards, I just ruminated like I should have done differently or it's my fault or like I'm not even wanted here. You feel it. You feel how the system really is not designed for you, so it's not meant for you.

[00:22:51] Hector

So you really don't feel like you should be belong there or that they want you there, really. And it it's compounds and it's just adds to it because every single time I have to or we have to engage with them again is retraumatizing and it feels almost confrontational and it's not necessarily that but that's that's really what it feels like. It's like my heart palpitates start sweating. I have to, like, relax. It's like I know it's going to take at least four times before somebody picks up, you know? And it's just really difficult even for the people around me afterwards because I just have just so activated because it's just such a repeating experience, you know, that it's really difficult. And. That's not necessarily how access to services has to be. And like this whole thing about hanging up, we even hear it in our 911 system and nine and eight system where people, for example, are seeking emergency services because they're either feeling suicidal and they're thinking of harming themselves. One of the things that we are learning from folks and have tried it and seen to myself is like, for example, calling the new 908 number that we have, they'll hang up, hang up, you know, because they don't they don't understand that we are using relay or we're using an interpreter or that we're using some other accessibility and they just think that nobody's at the other end or they just get tired of waiting, you know, because they're not used to or they have no experience.

[00:24:22] Hector

And we have had folks that just are being turned away. You know, it's it's like you go looking for help and you hit a wrong door and but that's the door you're supposed to go to and you keep going and the door is not opening. And so you really. Can walk away feeling a sense of despair, you know, a sense of disenfranchisement, a sense of, you know, discrimination. And there's a reason why that's against law and why it's wrong. It has significant health impacts on the individual and it limits the mandated I mean, we’re talking about mandated laws that are 30 years old, 30 years old. And having to explain to people like this is a law. Like I'm not here to explain disability rights to you or to teach you about accessibility. I'm here because I'm trying to get help. And it becomes that additional barrier. It's like I'm constantly having to be like an accessibility expert or constantly having to be like a disability expert. And that's not why I go there.

[00:25:28] Madison

I mean, I know this is going to be a really big question, but stemming off of accessibility, like what do you both of you think is a digestible call to action with regard to increasing accessibility just so that you feel more supported at least?

[00:25:46] Hector

It's hard to answer it because we've been answering it for the past 30 years. We have told over and over what the solutions would be. The first one is follow the law. It's a federal law. California has the largest. Like canon of disability laws in the nation, but nobody enforces them. So I think that really does need to be an alignment both at the county, state and federal level, because these are we are protected group of people that have civil rights. And just like we would not tolerate having any type of facility that says, oh, no women allowed or no people of color allowed, we should not have the same type of tolerance for no people with disabilities allowed. You know, and I think really that has to be at the forefront. But then also there has to be some significant financial investment, you know, at the state and federal level, because a lot of the services that we need, they're very difficult sometimes for counties to to really manage or support, like getting sign language interpreters. It can be very expensive for counties to pay for, especially if it's not built into their budget. A lot of the buses for services, accessibility is not budgeted in there. And what that does, it costs a significant undue burdens on the agency to provide a service that has to be competent as required. And that means that it's going to cost money and so that eats into their profits. So one of the things that we often hear from providers is like either provide the accessibility need or don't make any money or lose money on this contract. And some agencies sometimes go as far as saying, Oh no, you need to pay for your own accommodation to the people seeking it.

[00:27:32] Hector

And that's against the law. And I think that really goes back to equitable funding. So when the the the funding is created that the access is budgeted in there, you know, and also for the systems to invest to make sure that this accessibility services are there for folks because like right now, for example, we have like this big shortage of sign language interpreters and certified live captioners because usually, you know, they, they get paid, you know, by areas, but because there's really no infrastructure there to support them, that is almost something that is maintained by those agencies that are able to pay for it, you know, and so that that that has been a big, big problem. And then the other one is technical support. We have a lot of service providers that want to make their services accessible. They don't know where or how to do it. And like again, it's like who educates them? Didn't really don't teach this in medical school or some of these other schools because it's evolving. So it usually comes back to relying on us to educate on, you know, how to make things accessible, where to go, try to find out a way. And sometimes we have to fundraise to be able to pay for our accommodation. It's like my family and I, we recycle cans, you know, so that I can pay for some of my kids, like for the traveling thing, you know, because that's how. Unfunded the system is how unprepared it is and how inequitable it is. So it's still the burden is, again, on the individual and on the agencies rather than the people funding and creating the services.

[00:29:11] Madison

How do you think that things can be done differently within. Well, I guess it's kind of like an issue with the system, as you were saying, like you guys do so much within your community that. The system just still is not listening.

[00:29:25] Hector

It listens, but it doesn't hear. And I think that's, again, part of the problem. You know, and the conversation has been there. The input has been provided. The ideas have been provided, I think is a follow through because there isn't that recognition that we're part of a protected group of people that have very specific civil rights. And that's why sometimes, you know, people have to rely on on lawsuits which are very difficult to do. They're very expensive, they're very traumatic. They're very it's very difficult to find lawyers that will actually take on some of these laws because they want to get paid up front or have an idea that a case is going to pay big. And so even going the legal route, it's it's it's unaccessible for us. So I think the other option that we have had to really rely on is in a lot of the policy spaces or decision spaces where funding and laws are created, we need to be there and those spaces need to be accessible for us to be there, because sometimes even at the state level and I'll tell you this because I serve on Governor Brown's behavioural task force, even at the state level, getting accommodations sometimes is very difficult and sometimes don't get them on time or don’t get them at all. And this is at the state level with our governor, you know, and I think, you know, that has been unfortunate, but it has helped us to illustrate some of the problems that we have.

[00:30:54] Hector

But they're systemic. They're systemic, you know, because even even disability organizations sometimes struggle with the with the financial one. How are we going to pay for the accommodations? Because, again, you know, the burden is on the provider and on the individual and not the system. And so this is a system wide issue that really has to have a and I say that it has to both because it’s a it's mandated at every locality, but it also because it has real life implications. And I'll share a story, one of one of one of my peers that showed up at one of our clinics asking for help with his family. And he is hard of hearing. He's autistic. It has an intellectual disability. He is Latino. And so his services primarily would come from a regional center because supposedly that's the only place where he gets services. But in reality, he he can get services from the Department of Health. But because we the department really doesn't have experience with disability accommodations, they turned him away. And when he was having a mental health emergency, he dialed like the emergency response number. And instead of sending somebody to help, they sent sheriff and this was a young man.

[00:32:11] Hector

This is a young man, very docile, very non non-verbally, but he's receptive. And when law enforcement showed up, they didn’t understand the disability or the condition and they they thought he was being violent. They ended up shooting him in the back and he ended up paralyzed. And this is recent. This is recent, You know, and this is a young man that came and did the right thing, coming to our meetings, asking for help, telling what the issues were. And he's now paralyzed. And so we hear examples like that that happen repeatedly to our community because our community, oftentimes when we interact with law enforcement, they don’t understand it or we don't have accommodations. So we end up in jail or we end up getting beat up or we ended up getting severely injured. And so there's a significant liability on the system, not just the county, but at the state level to make sure that this does not continue to happen. And unfortunately, it seems like the only possible solution for that right now is like a lawsuit. But again, you know, it's very it's out of our hands. So that's why so many folks sometimes who are hard of hearing deaf don't even go for mental health services. Because it could mean a life and death situation, too. To ask for help.

[00:33:28] Madison

So when people are afraid with everything you said that's been going on with seeking out mental health therapies. Do you think it’s a matter of building a strong community or like self support so that they can feel supported without seeking such services?

[00:33:46] Arash

I think so.

[00:33:47] Arash

As you said, self support, which which is I'm doing so, um. Um, yeah, we had, you know, social services is totally different than mental health department. So social services providing more like equipment for deaf and hard of hearing people like TV devices or alarm system or Tasers kind of services that are good and provided by the state of California basically for every state. But it's not enough because you see, we have so many issues and they do not deal with this kind of issue. So I have no idea how Department of Mental Health can help us. Maybe we have to get together and then we explain what issues we have a what problem we are facing every day so maybe they can understand. I, I believe that this kind of a support should be totally different than social services is totally different. So mental health is very important, but I don't know how. I've never had a chance to get it, so I will, I'm sure Twitter, that's why I'm doing this meeting.

[00:35:30] Mastaneh

I'm going to I'm going to intervene. This is Mastaneh. And first of all, I'm just so interested and so happy that we're getting to really share everything that you're speaking about on this podcast so that hopefully it could be really a louder voice for people to hear and not just hear, but to really listen to and take it in. So I'm really appreciative that you're here sharing all of this. And I know, Hector, that as an advocate that you're talking about this stuff all the time. So I really appreciate that you're here doing it again. Um, so appreciative. And I mean, at the end of the day, um, you know, looking at the system, whether it's government, social services or the mental health system, I have to believe that the intentions are good. But I think so much of it, Hector, as you said, really is so dependent on funding. You know, again, the thing is, how do you come together to push this across, that this funding is super important because there's a very important section of people who are unable to receive services that they need. And so, again, other than, you know, going to meetings, participating in discussions such as this to really get that message across and.

[00:37:04] Mastaneh

Although I don't think that nothing has been shifted and changed because I do see progress. I also think that perhaps it's just not moving fast enough because every year that goes by, you know, there's another person or another group of people who feel the brunt of it and who feel the pain of it. So I really appreciate all the work that you do, and I appreciate both of you for just being here and sharing all of this. Um, because I assume that it might be new to some people and it's your everyday life and it's your everyday experience and there's a lot of people who, you know, when you're not living a certain way. Sometimes it's not even in your like, awareness that this is happening. Like just what you said about the traveling. Like, honestly, I'd never even thought of that until you just brought it up. And so it really brings an understanding on a different level how, you know, the people with disabilities, specifically the deaf and hard of hearing communities really do have to manage constantly to live in a world that wasn't necessarily created or made with them in mind.

[00:38:22] Hector

And I think you just kind of like really kind of like centered it on what it is. It's the lack of awareness and it's cold. And I learned this from some of my, my peers, uh, autism, everybody, everybody kind of like, depends on the system that is meant for people that can hear or because it's part of our culture. And so I think there's like, because unless it's happening to you or somebody to you that’s close to you or unless you study it, it's really a cultural aspect that you haven't that we haven't completely been aware of how it is a privilege to be able to hear. Or sometimes we, we, we, we, we have like our privilege of hearing in society and just a lot of folks sometimes just take it for granted of just how much of an issue it can be for a lot of folks. Um, you know the traveling work. Many of us like work accommodations are impossible to get. And that means that being self-sufficient can be very challenging, extremely challenging to almost impossible. So many of us have to become, you know, entrepreneurs or find different ways to be able to subside, not in a very profitable way, as many of us have education, you know, because like disability was mandated in some of those settings.

[00:39:42] Hector

And, you know, the education system knows that they can be litigated to really provide those services so that those spaces can be more accommodating. But like workplace health care, you know, community, those are places where accessibility really hasn't taken into forefront how when you make things accessible, you make it accessible and it benefits everybody. Captions is one of the things that we fought at the beginning of the pandemic because we had been using things like Zoom before. And so when the pandemic came in, many of us not only were experts on utilizing remote meetings, but also on how to utilize captioning. So the advocacy that we did has resulted in things like automatic captions which we didn't have before, you know, and so agencies like Google, Microsoft, Zoom really understood how something that originally was built for a very small group of the population could be used for everybody. And now I rarely ever go into a remote meeting where I haven't asked for accommodations where the captions are there because we realize that accommodations like this can work for a lot of different folks, not just folks who are deaf or hard of hearing. So it helps with understanding and a lot of things. But the other thing that I realized in this space of mental health is that individuals that have mental health disabilities and take certain psychotropic medications can experience hearing loss after a long term medication use.

[00:41:10] Hector

And that was something that I never really understood. But had I had become aware for my peers who talked about the similar experiences that I was having with my family, they they misunderstandings, they the home situation problems, the relationship problems. And a lot of folks thought that it was them. And then it wasn't until they got their hearing is like I have hearing loss or I have you know and similarly with our Asian population, California has one of the largest senior populations that is growing in the nation and hearing loss and and deafness awareness is becoming a significant thing. So this is an accommodation that benefits such a large number of people because when we build systems that are accessible, they're accessible for everybody. And I think that's one of the things that I know we have really advanced. But we have had some steps because we used to have like, really. Robust systems in place. But because of the funding in some controversies, a lot of those systems, you know, they didn't get funding and they dried up and disappeared. And so I think it's really, again, now, as we are, you know, in this post Covid era, if you want to say, to really ensure that we try to make things as accessible for everybody because that's what we do, you know, but then also realizing that, you know, during the pandemic, the people that had the worst health outcomes, not just here in L.A.

[00:42:39] Hector

County or California, but throughout the United States where people with disabilities, you know, over a quarter of all the people that died from Covid were people with disabilities. And it was because we couldn't get accommodations or because we weren't even included in the safety plans. So, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a responsibility that we have. I'm a taxpayer. I still pay taxes. I'm a resident. I'm a member of this society and just like contribute and I'm able to have that that that also means that I should have, you know what? I need to be able to be in those spaces because it does feel when there's no accommodations, it does feel like those places are not meant for you and you're not welcome. And oh, as a person of color for multiple identities, that's a battle that I fight in every other area of my life. And many of us do, you know, and it's not something that is healthy and it's not something that is beneficial to anybody.

[00:43:41] Arash

I would like to mention a quick thing. Hector pointed to having a system providing those services. So I would like to share my story. Very real story. So as a hearing person, customer, I go to sometimes I go to in and out restaurant and then I order food and then they give me a receipt with the number on top. 30 announced the number by microphone is hard for me. What do you say? So what I do is I sit a person in front of me and I follow him or her When they call him or her when he or she gets the food. I know that. Next, next, next customer. My next. Next is my turn. So and I follow this rule in most of the restaurants and that they provide your numbers and call you. So. It is okay. But, you know, sometimes it takes so much energy, so much I have to follow the person to person goes to that place. So it's hard. And sometimes they don't follow the normal by orders.

[00:45:27] Arash

So they may have called me, but I didn't know. So when I saw it takes it's taking so much time. I go to the front and then the cashier and I say it, my order ready. They say, Oh yeah, we call you. But I couldn't hear. So it is very basic story of my daily life. And I would like fast food restaurant have a system accessible by numbers like a big screen like sometimes when I go to T.j.maxx and they have a big monitor showing that the next available cashier number one, four, five, whatever. So as Hector said, we deaf and hard of hearing people are responsible to share our stories with others because if they do not hear our stories, they do not understand what we need. So thank you for doing this so we can explain our daily problem activity so you can know more about deaf and hard of hearing people issues that really help. But I totally admit that it is our responsibility to share our stories with others so they can know what to do for us. It's very important.

[00:47:09] Mastaneh

You know, as you said, that it is your responsibility or the responsibility of the people within the disabilities communities to share their stories. But I think it's the responsibility of, you know, the bigger organizations and wherever anybody can to make those stories visible to the public. Right. And so I really have a lot of gratitude for the US, the access for all US and the Department of Mental Health for giving the opportunity for us to be able to invite you to come and share your stories. And so look forward to hearing the next segment.

[00:47:53] Arash

Thank you so much.

[00:47:55] Madison

I would like to thank our wonderful speakers for giving their time and wisdom and being here today. I want to remind everyone that if you're in need of mental health resources and support, you can call the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health's Access Helpline at 1-800-854-7771. I also want to invite you to listen to our other podcast episodes, as well as our YouTube series that addresses the topics of mental health and wellness as it relates to the deaf hard of hearing, blind and physically disabled communities. For links to the podcast and YouTube videos, feel free to reach out to cross-cultural expressions by emailing us at Connect with c c e at gmail.com. You can also find links by going to our website at archive.org.

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