Looking Out For Sight

Due to Wiltshire Sight’s innovative work, taking on an exceptional piece of research from Thomas Pocklington Trust (TPT) they have pioneered a new service which will revolutionise the lives of people with sight loss within the health and social care system. Firstly, working with care homes and now developing the Looking Out For Sight project into domiciliary care, the Wiltshire charity are able to reach a greater number of people living with sight loss both now and in the future. The TPT research identified that 50% of people living in care homes had high degrees of sight loss. However, care home staff are not routinely trained or have no awareness of sight loss and the support it requires. Funded by TPT, Wiltshire Sight aim to further pilot the service in the South West with the view to expanding the project nationally within the next two years.

During the hugely successful 2015 Pilot, visual awareness training was provided to 20 care providers and 208 professionals were supported. Throughout the pilot it was found that carers are not given appropriate training with regards to sight loss and how to best support those affected. This fantastic new service ensures the best sight loss assistance, wellbeing and safety of residents in care homes in Wiltshire, Swindon and beyond.

Over half of all care home residents in the UK are living with sight loss, the majority of which are currently unidentified or otherwise confused with other conditions such as Dementia and Alzheimers.

It has been found that through our training, carers have enabled residents to participate in daily activities such as playing bingo, enjoying audio books and much more.

Wiltshire Sight are leading this project and providing training to other societies like ourselves in the South West so that they can deliver the training to care homes in their respective areas.

The charity is currently recruiting volunteer Sight Loss Ambassadors in Wiltshire to assist with delivering the training. Any enquiries should be sent to lofs@wiltshiresight.org or call on 01380 723682.