Our Hi-VisUK National Lottery Community Fund supported project ‘Making Waves’ is working in strategic partnerships with Bradford Metropolitan District Borough Council, Cornwall Council and Hartlepool Borough Council. We are also working with the local NHS Foundation Trust in each area. Over three years we are and will be developing strategies, joint plans bringing key stakeholders together to help reshape the local care and health marketplace, to better understand and support all local people with DSI and their families.
We are thrilled to announce that our flagship project MAKING WAVES funded by The National Lottery Community Fund (England) is now up and running. It will drive our work over the next three years as we create local networks in project areas.
We are working strategically with local authority partners and a bespoke network of local providers in Bradford, Cornwall and Hartlepool to change the experience of dual sensory impairment (DSI) and transform the face of DSI care.
Our co-production networks in the three areas and a new e-learning platform dedicated to dual sensory impairment, will help reshape the local care provider marketplace around the lived experience conversations we have with local people with DSI.
The learning we achieve in MAKING WAVES local partnerships will be shared nationally and internationally. Keep up with MAKING WAVES developments in our NEWS page.
There have been several reports in the press and media about a significant breakthrough regarding stem cells in the treatment of age related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is the single biggest form of sight loss in older people affecting over 600,000 people in the UK and is the most prevalent eye condition associated with acquired deafblindness.
The promise this treatment offers is beyond calculation in terms of the benefits to older people with regard to quality of life and mental wellbeing. And the positive impact it will have on their confidence to stay mobile, communicate and access information.
Click this link for an article on the: BBC News website. Or search most of the national dailies and science and health journals websites for more information. Stem cell work has recently been described as a game changer for people with Multiple Sclerosis (click here). The same can surely be said for people with AMD.
Since January this year Hi-VisUk has been in Cornwall working with the local authority on the specialist adult deafblindness aspects of the Care Act. This includes our unique training and qualifications for staff to increase an authority’s capacity to meet their duties regarding deafblind adults. Part of a three-year contract secured by Hi-VisUK, this will see us training hundreds of staff across the county.
This builds on our groundbreaking work in Hartlepool with the local authority and local providers. It also complements our work ongoing with Bradford council’s sensory support services. Our work with all local authorities across England continues to grow alongside and partly through our partnership with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) with whom we jointly arrange open-course social-care training on age related deafblindness and the Care Act.
Our staff make it a priority to meet as many older people as possible living with dual sensory loss each year where there is no organisation in an area to do this vital work.
Hi-VisUK will be taking over much of the pioneering work of In Good Hands, our sister deafblind support project.
Hi-VisUK has volunteers trained in interview skills to support our research and evaluation evaluation activities.
Hi-VisUK brings older people living with dual sensory loss together throughout the year. They come from all corners and include their carers and communicator guides.
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