Study: British people who become blind receive little counseling

From BBC News:

The support available to people losing their sight is "a national disgrace", according to a leading charity.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People says that - of the 100 people who will lose their sight today - only eight will be offered counselling.

RNIB's campaign - called Lost and Found - has the support of best-selling author, Sue Townsend who is now blind.

The government says it is committed to working with disabled people, including the provision of support services.

According to the charity, people losing their vision are at risk of depression and even suicide.

It says that people often assume that a range of services automatically swings into action as soon as a patient is told that they are going blind.

But the reality - says RNIB's Fazilet Hadi - could not be further from the truth.

"It is left to organisations like RNIB to plug the gap and, at the moment, we can only help one in three people facing this enormous life change."

The charity is urging the Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, to direct primary care trusts to prioritise the improvement of support services, especially those in eye clinics.

It points out that people often compare the loss of their sight to bereavement.

And in the report that accompanies the campaign, there is evidence of a widespread lack of information and support which leaves people feeling isolated.

Sue Townsend (pictured) - who wrote the best-selling Adrian Mole series - has a condition called diabetic retinopathy.

In 1999, she was registered partially sighted, but her sight continued to deteriorate and she was registered blind by 2001.

During one hospital visit, she was asked whether she had driven herself there.

When she told the doctor that she had not, he said: "Good, because you won't be able to drive yourself back - you're partially sighted."

"That was it; I got up, walked out, made another appointment and I was shocked - I can still remember the feeling which was wanting to ask an awful lot of questions and not knowing who to ask."

Townsend says that nothing can prepare someone for not being able to see.

"I'm not going to pretend it's not a huge loss - in fact, it's a calamity."

RNIB's Fazilet Hadi says there is clearly, "a systematic failure in the UK to provide vital support".

According to its research, more than 20% of people losing their sight leave the eye clinic without being sure of the name of the condition that is causing the problem.

"We're asking politicians, decision makers and the general public to consider what they would lose from their lives if they lost their sight," said Ms Hadi.

"Personally, I miss lots of things, but at least I know where to go for the information and support I need."

The Department of Health says it launched a commissioning guide on eye health services in July.

"It provides guidance to help commissioners improve services in support of the aims of the UK Vision Strategy, which aims to eliminate avoidable blindness, improving services and social inclusion," a spokesperson said.

The Department also points out that free sight tests are available on the NHS to large numbers of people including children, people between the ages of 16 and 18 in full-time education, those on benefits, anyone who is at particular risk of eye disease, and people who are registered blind, partially sighted or who have a complex spectacle prescription.

And from April 1999 free sight tests were extended to everyone over 60.