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a blind man He said he was staying in “personal” lockdownAfter moving back with my parents Waiting 18 months for vital support,
David Brookmeyer, 43, from Middlesbrough, had to quit his job last summer and move 50 miles away to live with his parents. cataracts His condition had deteriorated rapidly since birth. Now, he is unable to leave home alone and go out at night without careful planning.
“It’s almost like a personal lockdown,” he said. Independent“There’s a path I can walk on with a little caution because it’s a quieter path to where I live, but other than that, I have to have someone to walk with, and that’s why I was hoping to get some mobility training.”
Mr. Brookmeyer is one of thousands of blind people People who have been forced to wait Local authority training, known as vision rehabilitation, Helping them learn to do things again and live independently. Experts warn that without timely help, people experiencing vision loss will become isolated from society.
A Freedom of Information request by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) revealed that people in 20 per cent of local authorities, including Newcastle upon Tyne, Brighton & Hove and Croydon in London, have been waiting more than a year to receive an initial assessment of the services they need.
A staggering 85 per cent of local authorities were unable to follow the RNIB’s recommendation that they complete a vision rehabilitation assessment within 28 days. The charity also found that some local authorities were unable to fill the role of qualified specialists, as almost a quarter of them had vacant jobs.
Alexis Horam, who has worked as a vision rehabilitation specialist for 30 years, said the service is vital in helping visually impaired people regain their independence.
Every day, she helps people re-learn basic activities, such as how to make a cup of tea or cross the street, after a “massive life change” that is vision loss.
he told Independent: “If you can’t go out, it means you basically lose all sense of everything. You lose your social skills, you lose your friends, you lose your job… without timely intervention… I mean, I’ve been to see people who are committing suicide.”
More than a decade after she was first diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in 1997 at age 16, Bhavini Makwana, 43, got help in 2009. Her eyesight deteriorated over the course of 12 years, during which time she got married, had children and moved around the country.
“The biggest thing for me was that I couldn’t get my house,” he said. She said she felt “helpless” when she returned home from school without her daughter’s help. “What used to be a 10-minute trip took me 45 minutes because I was trying to find my front door.”
Thanks to vision rehabilitation, a yellow strip outside her front door with lights shining on it helped reduce her trip home again to 10 minutes.
Vivienne Francis, chief strategy and public affairs officer at the RNIB, said people affected by sight loss have told the charity they can experience isolation and low self-confidence for years without rehabilitation.
“Vision rehabilitation is important to stop this spiral of pressure and pressure on people’s lives,” he said. “It helps blind and partially sighted people to move about and regain independence, whether that’s driving public transport, cooking a meal or returning to the workplace. It restores dignity, independence and the ability to take part in everyday life. But under-resourced services are denying this opportunity to many people.”
The charity called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to commit to ensuring Blind and visually impaired people get the emotional and practical support they need.
Middlesbrough Council, Mr Brookmyre’s local authority, said: “Sensory loss can have a major impact on the lives of those affected, and our sensory support service works with residents to achieve independence with a range of daily living tasks through appropriate assessment and support.
“We continue to develop the service alongside users, including our sensory drop-in and sensory registration cards to help residents access our services, and bring our vision rehabilitation service into the home.
“Our response rate on vision impairment certificates is currently 97 per cent within 10 days, while a recent meeting with our local RNIB campaign officer highlighted a number of areas of good practice in Middlesbrough.”
A spokesperson for the Local Government Association said: “Sight loss and visual impairment can seriously impact a person’s quality of life and independence, and local councils play an important role in ensuring that as many people as possible can access assessment and support, and care to maintain their day-to-day independence.
“Adult social care has faced significant long-term underfunding and workforce shortages, particularly in specialist skills areas such as vision rehabilitation – both of which are contributing to increasing waiting times for care assessment.”
He said local councils are doing everything they can to meet the growing needs of residents, but sustainable investment is needed to provide services.
A government spokesperson said: “Every person with vision loss deserves high-quality support to help them live independently. “Local authorities have a legal duty to provide vision rehabilitation where necessary – and we expect regulators to take action if they are failing in their duties. “Through our transformation plan, we are working quickly to reverse more than a decade of neglect in our health and social care services.”
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