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

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.