Reflections on sight loss - RNIB

Talking point
available, ranges from peer-to-peer
communication, such as RNIB’s Talk and
Support telephone-based befriending service,
to counselling services and one-to-one
psychotherapeutic interventions, although
these are rare.
Services that are proving successful include a
pilot project at Cam Sight, the local society
working with blind and partially sighted
people in Cambridgeshire, where informal oneto-one
emotional support is offered by
someone who has completed basic training in
counselling skills. More formally, RNIB has
counsellors working with clients at low vision
centres in London and in Gateshead.
“We are evaluating the benefits of counselling
alongside rehabilitation and low sight services
at these two sites”, explains Norowzian,
adding: “These are specialist services in the
sight loss sector. Clients report that they are
more meaningful than services from
counsellors who do not have experience of
sight loss.”
Presenting the evidence
Gathering evidence to support a bid for
specialist provision within the National Health
Service is no small task, requiring commitment
from a number of organisations, including the
Vision Impairment Network for Counselling
and Emotional Support (VINCE) and RNIB.
One counselling service that suggests a body
of positive evidence can be gathered is an
RNIB service in Bristol that offers counselling
as an outreach service to blind and partially
sighted people, both in their homes and at a
centre in the city. Sue Dale, head of the
service from 2005 to 2008, explains: “We had
a very enthusiastic response to the service.
Diagnosis and registration as blind or partially
sighted is a traumatic moment that triggers
the need to talk to people outside the family
and friends group. We provided a space in
which we could just listen or offer more active
counselling.”
Dale is herself partially sighted and worked
with another sight impaired counsellor and
two sighted counsellors. She says clients often
found her visual impairment helpful as they
shared a similar world and wanted to talk to a
counsellor who understood sight loss. In
surveys of her work, some 96 per cent of
clients achieved significant beneficial change,
while feedback from individuals in a
qualitative study stated that the service was
“invaluable”, and “a lifesaver”.
Structuring support – a new model
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association is
also working to build the evidence. Its Middle
Step project is designed to offer help and
information as soon as possible after a
diagnosis. Initially, 10 pilot sites were set up
to discover whether a relatively structured
package of emotional support and trained
personnel could help people. These sites,
which essentially offered group peer-to-peer
work and introductions to useful services, ➜
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