Abstract:
The Kenya mental health taskforce 2020 urged the government to declare mental illness a national emergency of
epidemic proportion and establish a mental health commission that would advise coordinate and continuously monitor
the status of mental health and report on the annual national happiness index (UNICEF, 2020). The purpose of this study
is to examine The role of inclusive communication coping skills in improving the mental health learners living with
disabilities in the era of covid-19 in selected special schools in Kenya, especially those with difficulties in the domains of
hearing, seeing and cognitive functioning. This category is disadvantaged in access to inclusive communication
strategies, critical to mental health during Covid-19 era. The study objective is to identify and adapt inclusive
communication coping skills in improving the mental health learners living with disabilities. The study was anchored on
the biosocial theory of borderline personality disorder that emphasizes on emotions in treatment (Linehan, 1993). The
study adopted a dialectical philosophy, a critical postmodern alternative, where researchers strive to continually balance
and synthesize acceptance and change-oriented pandemic-focused dialectic behaviour therapy in managing mental health
of learners. The study target population consisted of learners with visual impairments, hearing impairments and mental
disorders in Western Kenya Region. Experimental and observational methods were used to collect data. The findings
indicate that a communication lapse arose in schools due to Covid-19 containment measures that encouraged social
distancing. This study has contributed significantly to the knowledge base in mental health and shall inform practitioners
and students in special schools on use of dialectic behavior therapy.
