Improving our understanding to help patients and families with visual impairments
Recently, colleagues at our Children’s Hospital (BCH) came together to learn more about working with patients who have a visual impairment.
We welcomed Lou Connor and Val Griffiths, from the Thomas Pocklington Trust and the Sight Council respectively, for the engaging session attended by staff from areas across BCH
Talia Treen, one of our Eye Care Liaison Officer’s, said: “Attending the visual awareness training was really good.
“It was interesting as I wanted to learn if there was anything to upskill, bring back to the department or put into practice with the patients.
“One thing that was great for my own benefit was learning about the different canes like the blue and white one for seizures. That was important to highlight.
Currently in the West Midlands there are around 198,000 people living with sight loss and this figure is projected to increase to 236,000 by 2032. Many who fall into this statistic are our patients, so we want to be able to support them to the best of our abilities. These sessions help our teams to do this.
Ela Ortega, Interpreting and Cultural Insight Co-ordinator said: “We believe that the first step toward change is awareness, so our goal is to raise awareness about the challenges some communities face in accessing healthcare and the importance of understanding in order to improve engagement with services.
"Visual impairment can present numerous challenges in everyday life, from navigating physical spaces to accessing digital content.
“By understanding these, we can create a more supportive and inclusive environment, not just for our patients and families, but also for our colleagues with sight loss.”
Staff from various departments attended the two-hour interactive session where they all had the opportunity to ask questions about how best to adapt their work practices to support those that were visually impaired, try out some goggles as part of a simulation to see what it is like to navigate movement when blind and to practise how best to guide a visually impaired person to their destination.
Lou Connor, who has lived experience of visual impairment, said: “It is good to collaborate with other Trusts and continue to raise awareness of the barriers and obstacles that blind and partially sighted people face, as well as what their families face as this is often forgotten but needs to be taken into consideration.
“The vast majority of obstacles and barriers we face as a community can be overcome by accessible and inclusive communication.
“Hopefully by us doing this and sharing our lived experience, people can have a little bit more insight, empathy and understanding as to how small changes can make a big difference.”
The session highlighted how everyday things like body language can be a barrier for those with a Visual Impairment as 70 per cent of all communication is non-verbal. They will not be able to see if you nod or put out your hand to shake it, so to overcome this it is important to use verbal communication.
Val, who lives with total sight loss, said: “The importance we need to show to everyone is because we can’t see, talking is one of the most important things when you are addressing people with sight loss.”
Our Trust’s Cultural Awareness team organised this event and have more planned in the future.