Helping people find their lives again - RNIB

Enabling people to get support and become
independent
Our blind and partially sighted members continually tell us how vital it is to be able to get both
practical and emotional support, information and advice at the right time. During the year RNIB
spent £26,861,000 enabling people to get support and become independent, of which
£11,918,000 was made possible by income from donors.
Targets
1. Reduce the trauma of
losing your sight by
providing support at the
point of diagnosis through
the launch of a radically new
pilot advice service.
2. Implement the Eye Care
Review in Wales (which is
led by the Welsh Assembly)
and Scotland (led by the
Scottish Executive) and work
with civil servants in
Northern Ireland to bring
about integrated
rehabilitation services.
3. Enable more blind and
partially sighted people in
the UK to call upon RNIB’s
technically minded
volunteers to help with
everyday equipment from
washing machines to
computers.
This year we combined our Helpline and Customer Service
teams making it easier for customers to get the support, advice
and products they need from just one phone call. Customers
can now find out more about their eye condition, buy a
product, join our library, check out their legal rights or their
potential benefit entitlements, be put in touch with a trained
counsellor and much more. It is popular too – over 2,000 people
are contacting us for help every day.
RNIB Scotland is involved in the monitoring of 24 projects
under the Eye Care Review with significant influence over six
models of integrated service delivery.
In Wales people continue to benefit from a new range of eye
care services, however, the formal launch of the Eye Care
Review in Wales was disappointingly delayed.
In Northern Ireland we are delighted that the Vision Strategy
Implementation Group, of 20 senior civil servants has agreed a
3-year plan of objectives, targets and actions.
This year RNIB has coordinated an army of volunteers who have
visited blind and partially sighted people at home to set up or
sort out computers, DVD players, set top boxes, mobile phones,
digital radios and talking book players and so on.
16 RNIB annual report and accounts 2008/09