[visionrehabtherapist] Re: Adjustment To Blindness Question
- From: Dina Rosenbaum <dina.rosenbaum@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 08:20:45 -0400
This is from the Assistant Rehabilitation Director at The Carroll Center…
I would like to echo the importance of peer supports and counseling
combined with skills acquisition. At the Carroll Center, consumers new to
their blindness whether sudden onset or gradual decrease in vision over
time, benefit from learning the skills that support living a full and
satisfying life as a blind individual. What I have experienced though,
both during my own rehabilitation experience at CCB and also now working to
support those who attend the program, are the tremendous benefits for
consumers who come to know so many others adjusting to their own vision
loss. Sharing successes and challenges during conversations and peer
support groups allows the individual to gradually move away from the
isolation and depression often first experienced as adjustment reactions to
blindness. For example, O and M training may be met with initial doubts
and anxiety about regaining the ability to travel independently. While
instructors play an essential role in the instruction that supports the
individual in development of safe and effective skills, blind peers may
have experience similar worries; conversations with others who have “been
there, done that” help consumers to see that initial anxiety is normal and
that worries gradually subside as skills develop. I can’t tell you how
much I cherish hearing consumers come back from their first independent
walk crossing many busy streets and sharing with such joy how they
succeeded and how they handled challenging parts of the trip. The other
consumers who hear such stories take those positive words into their own
treks into the community with the words of their peers echoing in their
minds as they walk away with increasing self-confidence and believing in
their own ability to regain independence as a blind traveler.
Community-based training can also be combined with peer supports by
participation in peer support groups and organizations of the blind. Seeing
other blind individuals working, raising families, managing a household,
and enjoying recreational and cultural experiences builds confidence that
blindness does not mean the isolation and deprivation that societal views
of blindness often portray.
Counseling services can also support the individual’s adjustment to
blindness. For example, the Carroll center, offers individual counseling
and facilitated peer support groups using services provided by a clinical
social worker as well as two clinical psychologists. Therapists in the
community can provide services to those early in adjustment. Such
counseling can support the individual (and family/social supports) in
seeking out the rehabilitation services that support adjustment to
blindness.
The adjustment time frame varies, based on many factors. Some include:
comorbid medical conditions that caused blindness or resulted from the
circumstances that led to vision loss; access to supportive family members,
friends, blind peers, and community supports; and access to services that
support independence including transportation alternatives, vocational
options, and rehabilitation services.
Jennifer Harnish, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Assistant Director of Rehabilitation Services
Carroll Center for the Blind
770 Centre Street
Newton, MA 02458
Phone: 617-969-6200 Ext. 226 | Fax: 617-969-6204
jennifer.harnish@xxxxxxxxxxx | http://www.carroll.org/
Other related posts:
