Forum Brief: Deafblind week

As Deafblind Week draws to a close, the government provision of resources for the rehabilitation of deaf and blind people has come under the spotlight.

A Department of Health spokesperson told ePolitix.com: "It is because we recognise the complex needs of deafblind people that statutory guidance was issued on the social care of deafblind adults and children, in 2001. Since then the Department of Health has been working with Sense, Deafblind UK, RNIB, RNID and ADSS to identify ways of helping authorities better comply with that guidance.

"Progress in identifying, contacting and providing appropriate services for deafblind people is being monitored centrally through inspections, positionstatements, statistical returns and through continuing twice yearly meetings with the voluntary organisations representing deafblind people with whom we will continue to work closely."

Forum Response: Community Fund

Diana Brittan, chairwoman of the Community Fund, said: "There can be few disabilities more isolating than not being able to hear or see, yet thousands of the people in the UK are deafblind.

"The Community Fund is committed to supporting them to help them to feel a part of society and live fulfilled lives. Supporting the activities of organisations of all sizes from national organisations like Deafblind UK and Sense to small local deafblind clubs reduces the social isolation often felt by deafblind people and encourages them to become more active members of their communities."

Forum Response: National Deaf Children's Society

Gwen Carr, director of UK services at the National Deaf Children's Society, told ePolitix.com: "The newborn hearing screening programme is now rolling out nationwide and by 2005 all babies will be screened for deafness within weeks of birth. This means there will be an increase in the identification of children who are deaf or have complex needs, of which deaf/blindness is one.

"It will be a challenge for those working in post diagnostic services to meet those needs and resources need to be directed towards medical and educational services. NDCS is supporting and will continue to support families whose children are diagnosed as deaf, including those with additional needs."

Forum Response: Voice UK

Peter Raine, chairman of Voice UK, told ePolitix.com: "The complexities of need presented by deafblind people has been consistently under recognised by government and in many cases by services in both health and social care.

"This has existed for many years and is a more extreme version of the general neglect of services for people with either hearing or visual impairments. The guidance issued to local authorities in England and Wales two years ago in relation to the level of service required to be given to people who are deafblind was very welcome but is difficult to detect any significant improvement of provision as a result of it.

"The need to recognise the unique features of deafblindness must be stressed in any consideration of resources. Provision of service is not a matter of dealing with the hearing and the visual difficulty as if they were separate concerns.

"There are very few specialists in the field of deafblindness, either in the social care field or as consultants in the health services. As recently as four years ago it was difficult to identify one such consultant in the NHS. Any assessment required not only two consultants dealing with deafness and blindness but a system that enabled them to produce a joint diagnosis and the existence of specialist communications links to allow diagnosis and treatment.

"It is difficult to assess need in a social sense, as the ability to communicate is an essential first point in developing an understanding of the need. It is unlikely that individual authorities or health boards will identify sufficient demand to justify specialist appointments and there is an urgent need to make provision on a regional or sub regional level.

"To make use of those agencies that do have the scarce resource necessary will require an acceptance that the current level of provision is inadequate and that people who are deafblind demand a service that does recognise that the need is unique.

"In many cases the resource is likely to be sufficiently unique that each provision will need to be tailor-made to the overall features of an individual deafblind person.

"The resource needs for this group mirror those of many other disadvantaged people but with the additional difficulties outlined above and with the serious problem that there is as yet insufficient recognition of these problems of accessing need.

"Education services provide a range of valuable services but again it is rare to find staff who are trained in the dual specialism necessary to enable the individual to realise what in many cases is a very positive potential.

"Effective rehabilitation is a right, a training need, a highly specialised service and does need to cease being one of the poorer relations in the scale of provision."