Scholarship and Research at the DWC
Research Mission
The Deaf Wellness Center seeks to play a leading role in advancing scholarship in the identification, manifestations, and treatment of psychological and medical disorders that affect deaf and hard-of-hearing people. Our program is committed to research that is innovative, useful, and timely. We promote research that has local, national, or international relevance. In all of our efforts, we are dedicated to furthering the scholarly endeavors and research careers of persons who are themselves deaf or hard-of-hearing.
The Deaf Wellness Center conducts research in a variety of areas, including mental health, sign language interpreting, and public health issues affecting the deaf community (such as intimate partner violence). These include:
- A new study on Informed Consent
- Optimization and Dissemination of Proven Reforms in Interpreter Education sponsored by the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE)
- National Center for Deaf Health Research (NCDHR) funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Strong Connections, a videoconference-based sign language interpreter service for remote healthcare settings funded by the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund
- Public Service Announcement Outreach to the Deaf Community - Early Recognition of Mental Illness funded by the American Psychiatric Association
- Addressing Partner Violence in the Deaf Community - Adapting an evidence-based curriculum for use by Deaf service providers sponsored by the University of Rochester Department of Psychiatry
Deaf Weight Wise (DWW)
The National Center for Deaf Health Research (NCDHR) is studying the implementation of Deaf Weight Wise (DWW), a healthy lifestyle intervention developed for use with Deaf American Sign Language users. DWW was adapted from an evidence-based healthy lifestyle program at the University of North Carolina and has been tested in two clinical trials with Deaf participants at NCDHR within the University of Rochester.
Deaf Wellness Center Needs Assessment
Through the Integrative Project Funding Program, the DWC will conduct an internal retreat, including URMC department leadership, to get a sense of current needs and goals before conducting focus group interviews with various stakeholders within Rochester’s Deaf communities, the Department of Psychiatry leadership, and the broader medical center referrers.
View our publications page to view more of what we have produced, based on our research and scholarship.
If you'd like copies of any of the articles listed, just let us know and we'd be happy to mail them to you.