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Focus on sensory

Learn more about how we provide support to people who have sight and hearing difficulties - part of the Local Account Summary.

Word cloud shaped like two hands and a heart. The heart is red and contains the central word 'HOPEFUL,' surrounded by other positive words like 'CALM,' 'ACCOMPLISHED,' 'EMPATHETIC,' 'INSPIRED,' and 'POSITIVE.' The green hand includes words such as 'EMPOWERED,' 'GRATEFUL,' and 'AWARENESS,' while the orange hand features words like 'GRATEFUL' and 'CLARITY.' The overall theme conveys emotional wellbeing and positivityWe understand the life-changing impact that sight and hearing difficulties, including loss, can have on someone’s life.

Our team of specialists and community care workers, including a British Sign Language communication and rehabilitation support worker, play a vital role in supporting people to understand the impact of sensory loss and work with them to reduce isolation, confusion and challenges with communication and mobility difficulties.

We support people living alone to maintain their independence, especially when their confidence has been reduced because of their sight and/or hearing loss. An example of this in practice could be providing equipment to support people to hear the safety alarms and other alerts such as the doorbell or phone to accept visits from family, friends, carers and health professionals.

We advise on support, provide rehabilitation, low vision assessments, and support to people and their carers with hearing and/or sight difficulties to lead independent lives.  We work closely with the Guide Dogs Trust to support our young people when they move from children to adults’ services.

We visit people in their home to assess need and can provide information and advice, which can include the loaning of equipment such as amplified phones, lighting, alerting equipment and magnifiers.

We encourage people to attend Jasmyn House, sight and hearing hub in Paignton which is a drop-in centre for people with sensory loss. During drop-in sessions, help and advice is provided, and regular groups are held such as:

  • Regular tinnitus meetings.
  • Coffee mornings
  • Craft club
  • Book clubs

Testimonial 

My story: Bob (pseudonym)

Bob lives in Torbay with his wife who has a terminal illness. Bob has macular degeneration and double vision, and his sight is continuing to deteriorate, which is something he is struggling to accept. 

Feedback from Bob following assessment and support from a rehabilitation office for visual impairment (ROVI) highlighted the following: “I met the ROVI for the first time and was very reticent with her due to not accepting my sight situation. She was very understanding in her approach and made several helpful suggestions, explaining the benefits of white sticks and tactile markers. I was also provided with useful equipment to promote my independence at home including a liquid level indicator, high contrast matt and bright coloured tape to highlight edging.”

Feedback

We created a feedback form for home visits and groups and for the past 12 months we’ve had extremely high returns with 100% excellent feedback and also some useful requests for guest speakers at some of the groups.

Group feedback:

“Very good content and the practical was very helpful and useful.”

“Bevis exemplifies the ethics of 'praising his pupils'. He has never ending patience with us all and we never feel that we are not keeping up. He is also very humorous which is refreshing and lightens up the sessions”.

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