Visual Impairment Explained
Visual impairment can often be called many things. Some people refer to it as vision loss, others say it’s vision impairment – but all of these terms describe the same thing. Simply put, visual impairment is when your sight gets so bad that there is no way of fixing it. This means that glasses, contact lenses, or laser eye surgery won’t be able to provide you with perfect vision.
As of right now, there are well over 575,000 people in Australia that are suffering from visual impairment. It’s a problem that primarily affects the older generation – but people of all ages can also suffer from it. People that are 65 or over tend to experience vision loss because of the natural lack of sight that develops in humans.
What Causes Visual Impairment?
The natural ageing process can lead to visual impairment, but there’s usually a reason for this; cataracts. If you’ve not heard of this before, then it’s a visual condition than a lot of people develop when they reach 65 or older. The simple definition is that a patch starts to grow over the natural eye lens, which ends up causing blurred vision. You can undergo surgery to repair the lens, but there’s no guarantee that your vision will return.
Another common medical condition that causes visual impairment is glaucoma. This is an issue that targets the optic nerve. It gets progressively worse, and the result is a build-up of pressure in your eye which damages this nerve. As a result, your eyes don’t send and receive signals to/from the brain as they should. This means that you have difficulty seeing, and it can’t be treated with glasses or contact lenses.
You could also develop visual impairment as a result of a variety of other medical conditions. But, it could also be brought on by something as simple as trauma to the eye. If you’re hit in the eye with something that causes permanent damage, then this can easily lead to visual impairment. Typically, any young people suffering from vision impairment will have it because of trauma.
Is Blindness The Same As Visual Impairment?
Technically, no, it’s not. People with a visual impairment may still be able to see, it’s just that the quality of their vision is very poor. It could be blurred, distorted, and so on. With blindness, you experience complete vision loss – you really struggle to see anything at all. Some people with a visual impairment may end up with full or partial blindness if their problem gets worse.
What Are The Main Problems With Visual Impairment?
The thing with visual impairment is that it’s easy to diagnose. There’s only really one common symptom; excessively bad vision that doesn’t improve when you wear glasses. But, this condition can affect your life in so many different ways. Not everyone goes through the same issues, but there are a few common things that you’ll likely experience:
- Inability to drive because your vision is too bad
- Balance problems leading to regular falls
- Problems reading
- Difficulty walking because of a lack of sight and balance
- Issues completing routine household tasks because you can’t see what you’re doing
- Trouble socialising as you’re too afraid to leave the house
It’s very common for people with visual impairment to slip into depression as they feel like they can’t do anything. Everything seems as though it’s ten times more dangerous when you can’t see properly. You feel like a liability, which leads you to just stay indoors and avoid social contact.
Having said that, your life doesn’t need to play out in this way. With our visual impairment care, we can help you get back into the swing of things and learn how to live with your visual impairment. You’ll soon see just how many things you’re able to do, and how independent you can still be.
What Visual Impairment Care & Support Do We Offer?
Our visual impairment care isn’t just for individuals that need help dealing with this condition. It’s also ideal for anyone who has to look after someone that is visually impaired. This can be a very tough thing to do as you want to take care of them and ensure they’re safe, but you don’t want to be too overbearing and controlling.
At Home Caring, we have experienced and trained home carers that know how to find the right balance between offering support and encouraging independence. All of their training is focused on visual impairment; how to help people deal with it, how to educate family members, and how to specifically change living environments to improve the quality of life. Everything is built around the needs of the individual suffering from visual impairment – we design and implement a support plan that’s specific to you. If you – or the person you’re looking after – has anything they desperately want to still do, then we work on finding solutions that let them do it. This reduces the restrictions on their life, making them feel much happier.
Visual impairment comes in many different forms and can affect some people worse than others. With our support assistants by your side, they can adapt the care to suit all levels of vision impairment. If you only require minimal assistance for an hour or so per day, then we can do this. Likewise, we’re more than happy to arrange for people to visit your home and stay with you for numerous hours – or even through the night.
For more details of what we can offer you in terms of visual impairment care, here’s an overview of our support services:
- A full assessment before any care starts – this lets us see what you need help with the most, and you can tell us any specific issues
- A bespoke support plan that’s designed around your individual needs
- Regular visits to your home at whatever frequency you require
- Personal care and support to help you adapt to your visual impairment
- Specialist support that you can call upon 24/7
- Individual assistance with any additional activities – such as playing sports, attending social events, and so on
- Emotional care and support for individuals and family members
Advice on how family members can help look after anyone with a visual impairment
As you can see, we do our best to make life more comfortable for people with visual impairment. Whether it’s partial impairment or full-on blindness, we put the steps in place to avoid slipping into a spiral of depression and social decline. The thing with visual impairment is that, while you may be unable to cure it, you can certainly get used to living with it. As time goes on, different activities become easier as you learn how to do them without being able to see properly. With our visual impairment care, you’ll understand how to do these things, allowing you to settle into a new daily routine with ease.
A big part of our service focuses on the emotional support given to everyone involved as well. We know it can be hard to deal with visual impairment as you feel like you’ve lost a significant aspect of your life. In fact, it’s not uncommon to go through the stages of grieving after your diagnosis. Our team is here to help you through all of this, ensuring that you approach life with more positivity.
Contact Us Today
It’s paramount that you find the very best visual impairment care around. We know you can feel on edge at the thought of bringing strangers into your home to help you or a loved one. Rest assured that all of our carers have gone through extensive background checks and training to ensure they’re perfect for the job. Take one massive step towards a better life by contacting us today and enquiring about our visual impairment care services. We’ll gladly answer any queries, and you will receive a full breakdown of what this service entails.
