County Durham Society For The Blind And Partially Sighted

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Durham Sight Loss Survey Partnership 2008

"Talking a blind bit of notice in County Durham"

(By Action for Blind People, Blind life in Durham and County Durham Society for the Blind and Partially Sighted)

Short cut to the full document - http://www.actionforblindpeople.org.uk/news/a-blind-bit-of-notice-in-county-durham,108,SNS.html

Executive summary

The purpose of the study

The research summarised in this report was commissioned to establish the views of blind and partially sighted people in County Durham about the services and support they have recently received. 44 adults and children were consulted. They were drawn from every district of the county, both rural and urban, and represented a good cross-section of diversity in age, sex, eye conditions and other key factors. For most people their experiences of services related to sight loss are recent, and their perceptions can therefore be taken to illustrate a snapshot of current practice.

Summary of Key Recommendations

By studying the report as a whole, it will be apparent that the following key changes would together address most of the concerns reported in this survey.

1. Provide a full time Eye Clinic Liaison Officer (ECLO) at every eye clinic (including satellite clinics). This role to include the provision of service information and first-line emotional support.
2. Devise a service for those who need more thorough emotional support or counselling.
3. Prepare uncomplicated information unified across all providers, in a range of accessible formats; to keep it up to date; and to utilise pro-active methods to get it to the people who need it at an early stage.
4. Enable service users to be easily and quickly passported through to all the services they require, no matter which agency they happen to approach as their starting point.
5. Commit to adopting existing standards and good practice models, particularly those published by Dept of Health, ADASS, NALSVI and RNIB.
6. Consult service users whose sight loss is recent, and involve them in the planning and delivery of services at every stage.
7. Improve inter-agency liaison for planning and delivering services.
8. Regularly monitor the implementation of these recommendations through the Low Vision Services Group.