Services for people with impaired vision

The Visual Impairment Team aim to help people live as independent and full a life as possible, whatever their needs or disability.

How can you contact the Visual Impairment Team?

Visit our office or contact us using the details below.

When can you contact the Visual Impairment Team?

A Duty Officer is available to help if you visit the office or telephone on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, between 9.30am and 1.30pm. If you need help or advice urgently, you may visit or call the office at any time Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm. Outside these times, please contact the Emergency Duty Team.

What happens when you contact the Visual Impairment Team?

The team have professionally qualified Rehabilitation Workers for Visual Impairment.  The Duty Officer will at first discuss your situation with you and offer you information and advice.  A referral can then be taken for a Rehabilitation Worker to visit you.

Who can receive our help?

We see people of all ages, both children and adults.  We would consider as eligible those persons who present with a diagnosed and significant sight loss.  The team maintains the register of visually impaired persons and although we will see people who are not registered we would expect that their sight loss would be less than 6/12 acuity, or/and they have significant field reductions.  Many people that we see may have a dual sensory loss or other disabilities as well as their sight loss.

What Help Do We Provide or Arrange?

Our Rehabilitation Workers will provide a holistic Community Care Assessment.  They will work with the visually impaired person and their family/carer.  They can provide advice, training and equipment in connection with the core Rehabilitation skills of communication, independent living skills and orientation and mobility. They can refer onto others e.g. Social Workers and Occupational Therapists in the local authority teams for further services.  They will also work closely with the Education services, Employment services, hospital services including the Eye Clinics and Low Vision Department and the voluntary sector.  Workers can also discuss and offer advice on accessing Direct Payments and Individual Budgets.

How quickly will you get help and advice?

We endeavour to contact you on the day that we receive your referral and offer as much advice as we are able at that time.  We have a waiting list where every referral is prioritised according to perceived need.  We try and see everyone as quickly as we can.

Is the service confidential?

We guarantee to keep all information confidential to the Community Care Services, unless we are obliged to disclose it for legal reasons or assist in the investigation of abuse and neglect, or we have your specific permission to pass information to other sources.

What if you want to make comments on the service you have received?

If you have any comments - good or bad - on the service you received, we would like to hear from you. It helps us to provide the sort of services you need. Any comments should be made to the Team Manager or Care Services Manager at The Forge.

We have a formal complaints procedure for complaints which cannot be resolved in this way. For more information, please refer to a leaflet: 'Making a complaint about social services for adults' - available from the Visual Impairment Team or from the Communications Unit.