A blind man said he is living in a “personal lockdown” after having to move back in with his parents while waiting 18 months for vital support.
David Brookmyre, 43 and from Middlesbrough, had to quit his job and move 50 miles away to live with his parents last summer after the glaucoma he’s had since birth rapidly deteriorated. Now, he is unable to leave the house on his own and go out at night without careful planning.
“It’s almost like a bit of a personal lockdown,” he told The Independent. “There’s one route I can take down the road with a bit of care because it’s a quiet path to where I live, but other than that, I need to be walking along with somebody, and this is why I was hoping to get some mobility training.”
Mr Brookmyre is one of thousands of visually impaired people who have been forced to wait for local authority training, known as vision rehabilitation, to help them relearn how to do things and live independently. Experts warn that without timely help, those experiencing sight loss will become isolated from society.
A Freedom of Information request by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) revealed that 20 per cent of local authorities, including the likes of Newcastle upon Tyne, Brighton and Hove, and Croydon in London, have people waiting for more than a year to receive just an initial assessment of the services they need.
A staggering 85 per cent of local authorities were unable to comply with the RNIB’s recommendation that they complete vision rehabilitation assessments within 28 days. The charity also found that some local authorities are unable to fill the role with qualified specialists, as almost a quarter of them had unfilled jobs.
Alexis Horam, who has worked as a vision rehabilitation specialist for 30 years, said the service is vital for helping visually impaired people regain their independence.
Every day, she helps people relearn basic activities, such as how to make a cup of tea or cross a road, following the “massive life change” that is sight loss.
She told The Independent: “If you can’t go out, it means you basically lose all sense of everything. You lose your social skills, you lose your friends, you lose your job… Without timely intervention… I mean, I’ve gone to see people who are suicidal.”
Bhavini Makwana, 43, received support in 2009, more than a decade after she was first diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at the age of 16 in 1997. Her eyesight had deteriorated over the 12 years, during which time she had got married, had children and moved around the country.
“The biggest thing for me was I couldn’t find my own house,” she said, explaining she felt “helpless” returning home from the school run without her daughter to help. “What used to be a 10-minute journey would take me 45 minutes just because I’d be trying to find my front door.”
A yellow strip outside her front door with a light shining onto it helped reduce her journey home to 10 minutes again, thanks to vision rehabilitation.
Vivienne Francis, RNIB’s chief strategy and public affairs officer, has said that people affected by sight loss have told the charity they can experience years of isolation and low confidence without rehabilitation.
“Vision rehabilitation is crucial in stopping this spiral and pressing play on people’s lives,” she added. “It supports blind and partially sighted people to thrive and regain independence, whether that be navigating public transport, cooking a meal, or returning to the workplace. It restores dignity, independence, and the ability to take part in everyday life. But under-resourced services are denying so many this chance.”
The charity called on health secretary Wes Streeting to commit to ensuring blind and visually impaired people get the emotional and practical support they need.
Middlesbrough Council, Mr Brookmyre’s local authority, said: “Sensory loss can have a major impact on the lives of those affected, and our sensory support service works with residents to achieve independence with a range of daily living tasks through appropriate assessment and support.
“We continue to develop the service alongside users, including our sensory drop-in and sensory registration cards which support residents to access our services, and bringing our vision rehabilitation service in-house.
“Our response rate to certificates of vision impairment currently stands at 97 per cent within 10 days, while a recent meeting with our local RNIB campaigns officer highlighted a number of areas of good practice in Middlesbrough.”
A Local Government Association spokesperson said: “Sight loss and visual impairment can seriously impact a person’s quality of life and independence, and local councils play a crucial role in ensuring as many people as possible can access assessments and support, and care to maintain their day-to-day independence.
“Adult social care has faced significant long-term underfunding and a shortage of workers, particularly in specialist skills areas such as vision rehabilitation – both of which are contributing to exacerbated waiting times for care assessments.”
They added that local councils were doing what they could to meet the growing needs of residents, but sustainable investment is required to deliver services.
A government spokesperson said:“Everyone with sight loss deserves high-quality support to help them live independently.“Local authorities have a legal duty to provide vision rehabilitation where it’s needed – and we expect regulators to take action if they are failing in their duties.“We are working at pace to reverse more than a decade of neglect in our health and social care services, through our Plan for Change.”
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