Sense International India Launches Mental Health Screening Tool for Persons With Deafblindness
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The organisation said the tool, launched during Mental Health Awareness Month, is the first statistically validated mental health screening framework in India developed exclusively for persons with deafblindness.
Sense International India has launched SII-SAMWED, a structured mental health screening and assessment tool designed specifically for children and young adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities.
The organisation said the tool, launched during Mental Health Awareness Month, is the first statistically validated mental health screening framework in India developed exclusively for persons with deafblindness.
Named Sense International India - Screening and Assessment of Mental Wellbeing of Deafblind and Multiple Disabilities (SII-SAMWED), the tool is intended to support early identification and monitoring of mental health concerns among individuals with combined hearing and vision loss.
According to Sense India, nearly 500,000 people in India live with deafblindness, a condition that significantly affects communication, emotional expression, and access to daily interactions. The organisation said mental health needs within this population have largely remained unaddressed due to limited specialist support and a lack of structured assessment mechanisms.
The screening tool has been developed for two age groups - children aged 10 to 18 years and young adults aged 19 to 29 years. Each version contains 37 structured assessment items covering emotional regulation, behavioral regulation, social functioning, cognitive and physiological regulation, and substance use.
Sense India stated that the tool underwent field-based evidence collection, literature review, expert consultation, pilot testing, and statistical validation. Validation studies involved 308 children and 117 young adults and included factor analysis, reliability testing, correlation analysis, and baseline-endline comparisons.
The organisation said the tool can be administered within 30 to 40 minutes by parents, special educators, and community rehabilitation workers in homes, schools, and community settings. SII-SAMWED has already been introduced in multiple states across India.
Alongside the screening tool, Sense India has also expanded its mental health support initiatives through a Psycho-Social First Aid (PSFA) Professionals Course developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar.
The three-month web-based programme is designed for special educators, rehabilitation professionals, and caregivers working with persons with deafblindness. The curriculum is based on the RAPID model - Rapport Building, Assessment, Prioritisation, Intervention, and Disposition & Referral - adapted for sensory impairment settings.
Rutu Trivedi, principal technical lead for mental health and research at Sense International India, said the initiative aims to equip caregivers and educators with tools to identify and respond to emotional distress, trauma, anxiety, and behavioral challenges among individuals with deafblindness.
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