Assessing counselling needs and services of hearing impaired students of the Cape Coast School for the Deaf

Abstract

Counselling services delivered by a professional to hearing impaired individuals will help them solve their problems and deal with issues, disregarding their special disability problem.This study was undertaken to assess the counselling needs and counselling services provided for hearing impaired students. The study examined the knowledge students have about counselling, its services and its importance, the various counselling needs that hearing impaired students have and the nature and relevance of the counselling services rendered. The study was undertaken at the Cape Coast School for the Deaf. The research design was the descriptive survey design which is a type of qualitativeresearch design. The population of this study comprised the students at the JHS and vocational level and the staff of the Cape Coast School for the Deaf. A total of 103 students and 40 members of staff were sampled for the study. The simple random was employed to select the respondents. Two types of questionnaire were designed for students and members of staff. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations were used to analyse the data.The findings were that students had a fair knowledge of counselling but not the services since, the services provided to them lacked the appropriate skills and techniques, due to the absence of a professional counsellor in their school. It was revealed that one of the main tenets of counselling which is confidentiality was totally missing. The study recommended that educational policy makers, and heads of institutions should invest time and resources in training counsellors to help these individuals in making informed choices and decisions to solve problems they face.