In this issue: 

• Mental Health Program
• Regional Services
• Telephone Equipment Distribution (TED) Program
• Grants
• Operations

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division: A year in review

This past year has been an exciting and adventurous one for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division (DHHSD). DHHSD hired new staff for the Mental Health, Operations and Regional Services programs. We are excited to have them with us. Also, some of our long-time staff recently retired. We are grateful for their service and their work with deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing communities. 

We continue to expand our outreach throughout Minnesota to increase awareness of our resources and services for people who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing and late-deafened. As part of this outreach, our staff participated in booths at both the Minnesota State Fair and the Twin Cities Pride Festival in partnership with Minnesota Council on Disability, and the St. Louis County Health and Human Services Conference. 

Our staff is highly experienced with the unique needs of the deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing community. In fact, many team members have hearing loss and personally understand the challenges that hearing loss presents in daily life. We are committed to connecting you to critical resources, assistive technology, information and programs, support services, and mental health services or referrals quickly and efficiently.

Dan Millikin, J.D.
Director | Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division

⁠Mental Health Program 

Each year, the Mental Health Program's goals and accomplishments are focused on providing direct services to clients to support their mental health outcomes. The Mental Health Program also oversees grants to community partners to deliver additional services, including: 

• Children's mental health services provided by Volunteers of America and Therapeutic Services Agency. 
• Psychological assessments for children and teens provided by BrightWorks (formerly known as Metro ECSU). 
• Community services and drop-in center for people who are deaf, deafblind or hard of hearing and have a mental illness provided by People Incorporated. 
• Telepsychiatry services for deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing Minnesotans provided by LifeConnect Health. 

The Counseling services for people who are deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing grant awarded to Region's Hospital Health and Wellness Program (HWP) ended on June 30, 2023. HWP remains open and is still seeing clients. The funds from this grant have been reallocated to the Children's mental health services grants to support expanded services and programming: case management services through Volunteers of America, and the Spring Conference for mental health providers and parent education classes through Therapeutic Services Agency. 

Fiscal year 2022-2023 accomplishments also included hiring a new mental health specialist, Chad Richardson, to serve the southern region of Minnesota. Chad also provides telehealth to clients statewide. Fiscal year 2023-2024 goals also include hiring a new mental health specialist for the St. Cloud region. Jamie Chapin recently moved on to a new opportunity. 

More about mental health 

Regional Services 

Regional services provide direct client services and training. Regional service program goals for fiscal year 2022-2023 were:
Goal 1: Increase outreach.
Goal 2: Collaborate with key stakeholders.
Goal 3: Reconnect to communities with hearing loss.
We accomplished these goals by offering six statewide webinars or conference presentations along with more than 50 custom trainings. These presentations and trainings reached over 2,700 Minnesotans! 

We will build on this success in 2023-2024 by focusing on the following goals:
Goal 1: More self advocacy approaches.
Goal 2: Enhance technology focus.
Goal 3: Expand our reach. 

More about services 

Telephone Equipment Distribution (TED) Program 

The Telephone Equipment Distribution (TED) Program provides phone equipment to people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have physical or speech disabilities that make it hard to use the phone. In addition to providing direct client services, in 2022-2023, the TED Program developed a video to promote TED Program services to people with physical and speech disabilities. In 2023-2024, the TED Program will focus outreach efforts in Clearwater, Crow Wing, Itasca, Kittson, St. Louis, Swift and Wadena counties. The TED Program will continue to serve clients, host booths and offer presentations statewide. 

The income guidelines for the TED Program change each year on October 1. You can find the current guidelines and download an application from the TED Program Eligibility webpage. 

More about TED 

Grants 

ASL Interpreter Internship Stipend Program provides a stipend to eligible interns who accept an internship outside the seven-county metro area. This is the third year DHHSD has had funding for this program. In 2022-2023, interns from all three of Minnesota's Interpreter Education Programs participated. When surveyed at the end of the year, 50% of the interns who responded were offered full-time jobs because of their internship experience. 

DHHSD has also disseminated surveys to learn more about the challenges of hiring and retaining qualified Support Service Providers (SSP) and community interveners serving Minnesotans who are deafblind. The surveys were sent out in early November 2023. The goal of the surveys is to understand the needs for additional funding for community SSPs, interveners, training, and recruitment. In 2023-2024, a project assessing all DHHSD grant programs will be completed. This will lead to a new database that will be used to analyze existing service provision and address gaps in services. This data will be critical to future grant opportunities and reporting. 

More about grants 

Operations 

Operations provides the budget and systems support for each program area to accomplish their goals and provide direct client services. 

Accomplishments for 2022-2023: 

• Staff interpreter coordinators coordinated interpreting and captioning services for onsite and remote DHHSD events with a 99% fill rate. 
• Developed and launched five surveys to gather community feedback on regional services presentations. 
• Produced a new fact sheet summarizing data from DHHSD’s direct and grant services for 2021-2022. 
• Acquired video equipment for in-house video production. 
• Sent 30 GovDelivery messages about topics and resources for deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing Minnesotans. 

Goals for 2023-2024: 

• Increase outreach to interpreters and awareness among interpreters about the resources available from DHHSD. 
• Update DHHSD’s annual fact sheet summarizing data for direct and grant services. 
• Produce accessible videos on topics that are relevant to deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing and hearing Minnesotans to keep them informed and aware of available resources. 
• Apply accessibility updates to the website and reorganize the contents of the Training webpage. 

Do you want to join your regional Advisory Committee? 

DHHSD welcomes community members who are deaf, deafblind or hard of hearing, family members, advocates and service providers. Advisory Committee members share details about the needs and gaps in services in their region. Advisory Committees meet three times each year. 

Apply