Mumbai, May 2026: This Mental Health Awareness Month, Sense International India (Sense India), the country’s first and only national organisation dedicated exclusively to persons with deafblindness and multiple disabilities, has launched SII-SAMWED (Sense International India – Screening and Assessment of Mental Wellbeing of Deafblind and Multiple Disabilities) – India’s first structured and statistically validated mental health screening tool designed specifically for children and young adults with deafblindness.
In India, 500,000 people live with deafblindness, a distinct and complex condition involving the combined loss of hearing and vision, severely restricting communication, emotional expression, and access to the world. Of these, only a fraction receives any specialist support and within that fraction, the emotional and psychological dimension of their lives has remained almost entirely unaddressed, until now.
SII-SAMWED marks a significant step toward changing that reality.
Developed through field-based evidence, extensive literature review, expert consultation, pilot testing, and rigorous statistical validation, the tool enables early identification and monitoring of mental health concerns among persons with deafblindness.
The screening tool has been designed for two age groups:
- Children: 10 to 18 years
- Young Adults: 19 to 29 years
Each version has 37 structured items across five domains of psychological well-being:
- Emotional Regulation: Identifies sadness, anxiety, irritability, emotional instability, and hopelessness in individuals who cannot voice their distress directly.
- Behavioural Regulation: Tracks aggression, withdrawal, restlessness, self-injurious behaviour, and reduced engagement as outward signs of underlying psychological stress.
- Social Functioning: Evaluates isolation, avoidance of familiar spaces, and difficulty maintaining relationships, helping practitioners understand how communication barriers affect social well-being.
- Cognitive and Physiological Regulation: Assesses sleep disturbances, concentration difficulties, fatigue, and psychosomatic concerns that connect mental health to everyday functioning.
- Substance Use (Young Adults): Screens for high-risk coping behaviours among young adults, including alcohol use, smoking, and drug exposure.
The tool was statistically validated with 308 children and 117 young adults and underwent extensive reliability testing, factor analysis, correlation analysis, and baseline-endline comparisons. It has been certified as statistically valid and suitable for both educational and clinical settings.
Importantly, parents, special educators, and community-based rehabilitation workers can administer the tool within 30–40 minutes at home, in schools, or in community settings. SII-SAMWED has already been introduced across multiple states in India.
Psycho-Social First Aid Professionals course: Building Capacity in the People Who Matter Most
Alongside the screening tool, Sense India has also strengthened frontline mental health support through its Psycho-Social First Aid (PSFA) Professionals Course, developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar (IIPHG).
The three-month web-based programme equips special educators, rehabilitation professionals, and professionals working with persons with deafblindness to provide structured psychosocial support.
Built around the RAPID model — Rapport Building, Assessment, Prioritisation, Intervention, and Disposition & Referral — and adapted for sensory impairment, the course prepares professionals to respond to anxiety, grief, trauma, loneliness, emotional dysregulation, and other psychosocial challenges experienced by persons with deafblindness.
They learn not only to recognise distress but to respond in ways that reduce long-term psychological impact and strengthen emotional wellbeing.
Impact at a Glance
- 468 special educators and community-based rehabilitation workers trained in mental health identification and support
- 280 persons with deafblindness and 167 family members received in-person counselling and mental health guidance from Sense India’s in-house psychologists
- 1,550+ stakeholders trained across the broader mental health ecosystem
- 262 siblings and 268 mental health professionals are part of a growing interdisciplinary support network and resource hub
Rutu Trivedi, Principal Technical Lead – Mental Health and Research, Sense International India, said, “Mental health has always been at the heart of what we do at Sense International India, because for years, we have seen individuals with deafblindness carry emotional burdens that no one around them had the tools to recognize, let alone address. Aggression, withdrawal, silence, these are not behaviours to be corrected. They are cries to be heard. SII-SAMWED and the Psycho-Social First Aid programme are our commitment to ensuring that the people closest to these individuals, their parents, their educators, and their caregivers, are finally equipped to listen. Because when we build that capacity, we do not just improve mental health outcomes. We give a child back their dignity.”
Mental Health Awareness Month, observed each May, calls for more than conversation. For India’s 500,000 people with deafblindness, who often have no way to say ‘I am struggling,’ what is needed is real infrastructure. The SII-SAMWED and PSFA programmes deliver validated methodologies and trained professionals that are strategically integrated into education plans and counselling frameworks, enabling sustainable and long-term community impact. The COVID-19 pandemic brought this urgency into sharp focus, with families reporting significant increases in anxiety and emotional distress among children and young adults with deafblindness. Sense International India’s response has been systematic, evidence-based, and built to last.