Indications of our impact and how we are helping to make a difference for older people with dual sensory loss are emerging through feedback from the people we engage with in the project.  To support as many older people as possible we need to build the capacity of organisations and people around the older person with the condition. We aim to do this by raising awareness of the condition, radically improving the regions capacity to identify older people with the condition and significantly increasing the number of specialist deafblind assessments requested by older people in the north east.

Our unique level three qualification provides the knowledge and skills to identify and assess older people with deafblindness meeting the minimum and key requirement of the Care Act 2014. In the north east there are now nearly 200 adult social care and sensory support professionals with the SCENE/IGH award.

Training is all about enabling people to see and do things differently, do them better or do more. Feedback shows this clearly:

  • “A new way of thinking for me was the combination of dual sensory loss as a different disability in its own right.”
  • “It really helped me to understand the impact on the individual.”
  • “I will use the training constantly to look at the impact on people with dual sensory loss.”
  • “It has given me more food for thought in relation to my assessing and taking closer notice of the aspects of hearing and sight loss.”
  • “I feel my assessments will be more informed and thorough.”
  • “Increased my knowledge of age related deafblindness.”
  • “I will be sharing this information about how to better understand and identify deafblindness with my team in their initial contact with older people.”
  • “I will identify resources in my area to facilitate deafblind assessments.”
  • “Review our assessment documentation.”
  • “Networking with others is so important, sharing information about deafblindness.”
  • “Include awareness of dual sensory impairments in other areas of the service and the person’s ability to do daily living tasks.”
  • “We will produce a fact sheet for our families and our staff when taking part in assessments.”
  • “I feel able to spot the signs of deafblindness at assessment.”
  • “A real awareness of just how difficult deafblind people find routine daily things.”