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Emotional support for sight loss

Emotional support for sight loss. Mhairi Thurston University of Abertay, Dundee. What kind of emotional impact is commonly reported?. Depression Anxiety Social Isolation Reduced well being. What are the specific challenges facing people with acquired sight loss?. Diagnosis

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Emotional support for sight loss

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  1. Emotional support for sight loss Mhairi Thurston University of Abertay, Dundee

  2. What kind of emotional impact is commonly reported? • Depression • Anxiety • Social Isolation • Reduced well being

  3. What are the specific challenges facing people with acquired sight loss? • Diagnosis • Degenerating sight • Loss • Changing identity • Rehabilitation • Being treated differently by others

  4. Being diagnosed with a serious sight condition • “The main thing was the panic. It was scary.” • “You’re told you’re going blind and they boot you out the door.” • “Nobody ever said, ’How are you going to manage?”

  5. Coping with deterioration of sight • “You are always having to adjust and readjust.” • “It’s like you get a remission with loss of vision and then you get a drop and that’s traumatic. You think, ”Is this going to be it?” and then it levels out again for a long time and I mean it just went on like that. It just went on and on.” • “Your life grinds to a halt. It took me to the brink.”

  6. Experiencing loss • “I just can’t do the things I used to do. That’s it. Every day’s the same.” • “You lose all the time. You lose your independence, you lose your pride and you lose your self esteem.” • “You lose everything in a oner.”

  7. Experiencing changed perceptions of self • “You feel a bit second class.” • “I feel like a leper. I should go around with a label saying unclean.” • “You’re on the bottom rung and you can’t get off it.”

  8. Experiencing others • “People have all got problems, but ours are visible. People say ‘There’s that blind guy’. You can’t hide blindness.” • “The general public treat you differently, because they don’t understand. They don’t understand sight loss.” • “People talk to my husband when we’re together. They seem to think that because my sight’s gone, that someone took my brain along with it.”

  9. Experiencing rehabilitation • “You don’t want to accept the fact that you have a sight problem.” • “It’s a journey, isn’t it. You have to take it at your own speed.” • “Its like another step along the way. Another nail in the coffin.”

  10. What are common coping strategies? • “You don’t die of it.” • “You can’t say, ‘Oh well, I’ve got it, I’ll just act like a dummy.’ I just say, ‘Well, I’ve got it and I’ll just carry on the way I am. Just look at what I can do. Just keep going.” • “I actually think that RP has given me not just taken away. It has given me things I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t had RP.”

  11. A transitional process from sight to blindness • point of diagnosis –shock/ panic/ disbelief • no outward signs of sight loss- resistance to rehabilitation/hiding sight loss/desire for life to remain unchanged • point of impact- enforced life style changes due to sight loss (e.g. loss of driving license)/loss stage • rehabilitation-outward manifestations of sight loss (e.g. white stick, guide dog)/change in perception of self/ change in perception by others/emotionally challenging • acceptance-re-conceptualisation of self/condition

  12. What about formal counselling? • “Counselling is for the weak willed. People who don’t want to help themselves.” • “Counselling is not being able to cope.” • “I know that counselling’s not going to help me. The only thing that’s going to make you feel better is getting your eye sight back.” • “They say they understand but they don’t. How could you? Walk about in darkness for a month and then come back and tell me.” • “The problem is who is doing the counselling. If it’s a sighted person then it’s a waste of time.”

  13. However…. • “At the point of telling somebody there’s nothing that can be done, there should be a counsellor in the room.” • “I’ve always maintained that there should be a counselling service alongside an eye clinic. Somebody should be there if people need them.”

  14. RNIB Draft Group Framework for Emotional Support

  15. RNIB Draft Group Framework for Emotional Support

  16. RNIB Draft Group Framework for Emotional Support

  17. RNIB Draft Group Framework for Emotional Support

  18. Tier one, tier two or tier three? • Counsellor or ECLO?

  19. RNIB Draft Group Framework for Emotional Support

  20. Further Information/Feedback m.thurston@abertay.ac.uk

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