German Federation of Blind and Visually Impaired People
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German Federation of Blind and Visually Impaired People |
Why Rehabilitation for Elderly Blind People?
In Germany, there are 155.000 blind and about half a million visually impaired people currently. 72 per cent of all blind people are over 60. This means that blindness or serious sight losses occur increasingly at older ages, often as the result of diseases such as cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucom or macula degeneration.
The number of newly-blind people is
estimated at approximately 28,000 yearly.
The situation people affected find
themselves in is one which can be characterized as being extremely
insecure in various ways: Due to the advanced age vocational
rehabilitation is an option no longer feasible. Yet everyday life and
its many demands and routines have to be coped with. And this is
especially difficult for blind people of the older age groups,
because in addition to blindness or a serious sight loss there are
other age-related diseases which make everyday life harder. Mobility
and flexibility are not as easy as they used to be, yet both is
urgently needed to ensure independence and the participation in
society. This is exactly where basic rehabilitation must begin.
Rehabilitation in this sense means to ensure that all those basic
services and assistance are provided which help clients to lead
socially integrated and above all independent lives. This involves,
for instance, providing support in developing daily living
skills; in learning step by step to manage one's household. Or
even, in moving around in unfamiliar places and using traffic
on one's own and safely.
However, blind clients are worried by another insecurity. How can basic rehabilitation programmes for blind and visually impaired people be financed? For unlike school and vocational rehabilitation, there is no unit covering the cost of rehabilitation programmes for the elderly.
The German Federation of Blind and Visually Impaired People (DBSV) and its 20 regional organizations of the blind are especially committed to addressing the problems of basic rehabilitation. A special DBSV working group has addressed and dealt with the problem through organizing a series of seminars. The outcome of these seminars as well as the experiences of experts at the regional organisations of the blind have been compiled in a special handbook on basic rehabilitation published by the German Centre for Education of the Blind. Starting with some basic considerations on rehabilitation for the elderly blind and what it can achieve, the book discusses, amongst others, special problems of conducting the primary interview with newly-blind persons, a variety of gerontological aspects and causes, impact and psychological problems of blindness. In addition to this, the field of low vision training and utilizing residual vision levels in most effective ways are dealt with. Neither a list of the major brochures published by DBSV on the topic nor information on braille and audio services are missing, nor a summary of useful technical devices and the training programmes offered in the field by the German Centre for Education of the Blind.
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