Adult mental health services

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division's statewide mental health response team serves adults (age 18 and older) who are deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing in Minnesota. This team is composed of licensed, professional staff fluent in American Sign Language. They provide the following mental health services to people with hearing loss:

Assessment and stabilization
Crisis intervention
Counseling services and treatment
Community placement assistance
Care coordination
Individual and family consultation
Aftercare planning

Please contact us for services or referral.

Download the brochure Bridging Barriers to Mental Health.

DHHSD also provides funding to the following community-based services for adults:

Community-based mental health services, including a drop in center. For details and contact information, please see the Community services and drop in center grant page.
Culturally and linguistically affirmative outpatient therapy, one-to-one and family counseling to teens and adults who are deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing in the Twin Cities. For details and contact information, please see the Counseling services for people who are deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing grant page.
For psychiatry services and medication management, there is a grant supporting a licensed psychiatrist trained to provide culturally and linguistically affirmative services virtually to deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing Minnesotans. For details and contact information, please see the Telepsychiatry services for adults and children grant page.

Other mental health resources

Minnesota Substance Use Disorder Treatment Program specializes in providing substance use disorder treatment to people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

We also have a directory of private practice providers and other providers who are fluent in American Sign Language.

Crisis services

Crisis services are phone numbers or online services you can call, text or chat when you need to talk with someone right away. Two crisis lines are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available to anyone.
Videophone users: Use your preferred video relay services and dial 988.
Captioned phone and TTY users: Use your preferred relay service or dial 711 then 988.
To text 988, enter 988 and send a text message to get connected.
To use 988’s chat feature, go to 988lifeline.org/chat.

DeafLEAD

DeafLEAD provides a videophone crisis line in American Sign Language (ASL) for people who are deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing.
Videophone users: Call 321-800-3323 or 321-800-DEAF.
To text DeafLEAD, send the message “HAND” to 839863.
For more information about DeafLEAD, you can visit DeafLEAD's website.