40 Years of O&M – The Journey to Independence for People with Visual Impairment in Vietnam
Le Dan Bach Viet
Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Elkins Park, PA 19027, USA
Preface
I am a teacher at the Nguyen Dinh Chieu School for the blind, in Ho Chi Minh City also known as Saigon. In 2003 I won a full scholarship in a national competition for a 2 years masters degree in Orientation and Mobility Therapy for persons with Visual Impairment held by the International Fellowship Program (IFP) of the Ford Foundation in Vietnam. I am writing this paper as a visually impaired student and as a witness to the historic events that have shaped education for persons with visual impairment both before and after the reunification of my country in 1975. Some of these events have never been previously recorded.
This paper will discuss the different types of schools for the blind in Vietnam; the history of Orientation and Mobility (O&M) in the country; current practice in O&M instruction and will consider some of the practical challenges facing practitioners and my plans upon my repatriation after graduation from Pennsylvania College of Optometry in September 2006. This paper has been written with support from Ms Ha Thanh Van, Vice Director at the Nguyen Dinh Chieu School for the Blind in Ho Chi Minh City and the two of the O&M instructors there, Mr. Hoang Van Tuan and Ms Dao Kim Phång, who have contributed to the introduction of O&M during the past 30 years throughout Vietnam; from my brother Mr. Le Dan Bich Viet who spent lots of time with teachers and students to take the photos in this paper; from the Association of the Blind of Hai Duong Province and from my academic advisor Ms Laurel Leigh. This presentation is dedicated to the Council of Educational Exchange with Vietnam (CEEVN) - Ford Foundation, all of my professors at PCO, and, above all, my fellow blind compatriots in Vietnam.
Vietnam is a developing country that is located in the center of South East Asia. According to the website of the World Info Zone (http://www.worldinfozone.com/country.php?country=Vietnam) the population of the country is 80.9 million (Data on Social Statistics in the Early Years of the 21st Century, General Statistical Office, Vietnam 2003). There are around 900.000 persons with visual impairments, but there is no legal definition of Blindness so this number cannot be considered as reliable. The only national definition of Blindness that I could find is the regulation of the Vietnamese Association of the Blind issued in 2003 (section 4, chapter 3 page 10), which states that membership is open to “anyone who can only count fingers at less than 3 meters”. The health sector uses the same definition of Blindness as that of the World Health Organization (WHO). (Thuy 1991; Dr. Phuc, Hien, and Thuy in lectures delivered at Department of Special Education of Teacher Training in Ha Noi 2001).
There are different types of establishments that support children who are visually impaired in Vietnam and they include Government schools for the blind and some in the private sector. Although the Prime Minister decided to place all schools for disabled children under the authority of the Ministry of Education & Training, in practice these schools belong to various local departments including the Department of Education & Training, the Department of Labor and Social Welfare, the Red Cross, and the Vietnamese Association of the Blind. Schools attended by students with visual impairments can be divided into the following types:
1. Schools for the Blind: there are only 3 government schools for the blind: (1) Nguyen Dinh Chieu in Hanoi, (2) Da Nang and (3) Ho Chi Minh City. These schools belong to the Cities’ Departments of Education and Training.
2. Schools for the Disabled: These are the most common form of special schools and are schools in which students of all type of disabilities are educated together. They cater for children with a wide range of needs including hearing impairment, developmental retardation, motor disabilities and for orphaned children.
Private Sector (People’s Funded Sector) Schools
1. Schools run by local Associations of the Blind
2. Schools run by religious groups (the Buddhist Church has traditionally maintained residential schools for the disabled where blind students and students with other disabilities are educated.
3. Warming Houses (or shelter houses) which are organized by blind or sighted individuals to support visually impaired children.*
Since Ho Chi Minh City is the wealthiest locality in Vietnam, it is where most of the warming houses or religious schools for the blind are located, and many graduates from these schools do not want to return to their mother provinces. Blind people from other provinces and cities also tend to move to the city to seek employment. Among the 38 schools categorized above, 10 belong to the Association of the Blind, 7 are private schools and 21 are government institutions. The map (figure 1) below shows the provinces and cities where there are schools for students with visual impairment.
The History of O&M in Vietnam
The history of O&M in Vietnam can be divided into three stages, (1) 1967 to 1975, (2) 1976 to 1997, and (3) 1997 to the present.
1967-1975
The Vietnamese culture tends to be family oriented, but generally people do not believe that individuals with visual impairment can travel independently and safely. Most people with visual impairment are reluctant to go out with other people and tend to seek other blind fellows to share their company. In the past, many people with visual impairment used any type of stick while traveling and sometimes traveled without a stick at all. To cross a street, they would raise their stick or cane up in the air, or would whistle to signal that they wished to cross the street.
Although the first school for the blind was founded by the French in Saigon in 1929, it was not until April 1967 that the first orientation and mobility training course was conducted at the National Rehabilitation Institute (NRI) in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City (Neustadt-Noy, N. and LaGrow, S.J., 1997, p 635-636). The course was delivered by a graduate from Western Michigan University, Mr. Rodney Kossick who was contracted by the World Rehabilitation Fund to run a pilot rehabilitation project for blind veterans of the war. Within a year, 2 orientation and mobility instructor training courses had produced 8 local instructors. At the same time, 25 trainees (consisting of blind veterans and adult students from La San School for the Blind) volunteered to be instructed in O&M and vocational training. I found a precious and very touching article written by Kossick in the Blindness Annual Report published by the American Association of Workers for the Blind in 1970. In his article, Kosssick (1970) described challenges of working in Saigon during wartime, and his observations about traffic are still as relevant now as they were then. He wrote:
The downtown area of Saigon has many large traffic circles and a few large boulevards with about 10 or 12 lanes of traffic. Through this downtown area flows heavy traffic: pedestrians, thousands of motorcyclists, bicycle riders, tri-shaws, cycles, taxicabs, military vehicles and a few pony carts. The sidewalks in the downtown area are usually cluttered with street merchants displaying their wares: those with carts, and small stands scattered throughout the area in random fashion. One also has to contend with trees, power poles and other fixtures. The residential areas have varying conditions: some have boulevards, some ordinary streets, and some dirt streets. There are hardly any sidewalks, only occasional curbing, oftentimes just paths. Moreover, in some places there were rolls of concertina barbed wire and in various places guard installations which blocked the sidewalks. (P 37).
Today, if you come to Saigon or to other cities in Vietnam, you will rarely see military vehicles and you will find more boulevards and larger sidewalks, but the traffic has not changed!
By June 1968 when the project ended, 2 other satellite rehabilitation centers had been opened in the cities of Da Nang and Can Tho, and by 1970, when the program was handed over to the Vietnamese, 180 blind trainees had completed the program (Trac, 1970). The trainees were taught basic light touch long cane techniques and were given exercises in walking over changing surfaces to create “greater sensitivity and feedback” until they “had the agility of a baton twirler” (Kossick, 1970, p 36).
After the historic events of 1975, the NRI was closed and most of the O&M instructors left their jobs. Some were moved to Nguyen Dinh Chieu (NDC) School for the Blind (formerly a school for blind girls) which was re-opened in 1976. O&M continued to be taught there by instructors who had previously worked at the NRI: Mr. Vo Quan Hai, Ms.Dao Kim Phung and Mr. Hoang Van Tuan.
In 1986, two instructors, Mr. Hoang Van Tuan and Mrs. Dao Kim Phung from NDC School in Ho Chi Minh City, were invited to set up training programs in O&M for the Vietnamese Association of the Blind. Subsequently they were asked to provide training for teachers from the NDC Schools for the Blind which had been established in 1989 with the support of CBM International in the capital city, Ha Noi (Hanoi). They were invited to conduct this training because the people of Ha Noi had been influenced by Soviet training doctrines and had no expertise in teaching people with visual impairment to travel independently and safely. From then on, as the country’s economy improved, more schools for the blind and disabled children were opened in various provinces, and these two experts continued to travel the country to introduce O&M to schools and the local Vietnamese Associations of the Blind.
In 1997, with technical and financial support from the Halland Region Association for the Blind in Sweden, The Rehabilitation Center belonging to the Vietnamese Association of the Blind was built and put into operation for the rehabilitative training of blind persons and rehabilitation instructors.
On Monday November 7, 2005, I had a chance to interview Mr. Vu Anh Minh, a rehabilitation teacher who graduated from the Rehabilitation Center and who is currently working as an O&M instructor at the Association of the Blind of Hai Duong Province in the North of Vietnam. He described how the Rehabilitation Instructor Training Program lasts 3 months and the O&M component includes 70 periods (each period is 50 minutes) of theory and 90 periods of practice. The course covers indoor and outdoor travel, but does not cover areas such as low vision or additional disability. Currently they are applying the same curriculum that Mr.Tuan and Ms. Phung introduced at Nguyen Dinh Chieu School. Each year, the center offers four courses, each course lasts 3 months, and so far 160 rehabilitation instructors have graduated and they all are working for the local branches of the Association of the Blind in the country.
Current Practice
Every year the NDC School in Ho Chi Minh continues to send Mr. Tuan and Ms. Phung to other schools for the blind to train their O&M teachers. The Catholic Church in Ho Chi Minh City also holds annual training courses in the summer for employers who are willing to take on persons who are visually impaired, and they also invite Phung or Tuan come to work with Sister Le Van Nga who was trained as an O&M Instructor, achieving a Masters Degree in Special Education in Australia in 2001. (Interview with Mr. Nguyen Quoc Phong, the head of Thien An Warming House for the Blind in Ho Chi Minh City on January 27, 2006).
Teaching Approaches
Orientation and Mobility instructors always follow a traditional training methodology and curriculum. They are required to follow closely teaching plans prepared at the start of the school year to cover weekly lessons. They also have to register their teaching targets in accordance with the teacher’s appraisal system and at the end of the school year meetings are held for colleagues and school leaders to review and evaluate the trainer’s performance.
There is no O&M training for low vision students; they are treated as blind students because the curriculum we are using has not changed much during the last 40 years. There is also no O&M training for visually impaired children with additional disabilities as well as O&M for old aged persons with visual problems.
Group instruction in O&M is popular and there are no individual education plans (IEPs) for students. Lessons are usually divided into two parts; theory and practice. In the theory section, the teacher reads mobility instructions out loud for students to write down and in the practice sections the students and the instructor carry out the instructions.
Traffic Risk:
Traffic
According to BBC News, throughout Vietnam, more than 7000 people died from traffic accidents in 2001. During the first eleven months of 2005, the government recorded more then 12,700 traffic deaths, and the World Bank (WB) ranked Vietnam as having the worst record for traffic accidents in the region last year. In Ho Chi Minh City alone it is estimated that 31 persons die each day from traffic accidents (Vietnam News Online, 2006).
In Vietnam, the traffic risks are high even for sighted pedestrians. Modified cane techniques for visually impaired travelers are necessary because of the nature of the traffic in Vietnam.
The sidewalks are not accessible because of the number of obstacles on them such as motorcycles, which their owners park wherever they can. Blind pedestrians therefore are faced with unpredictable obstacles while traveling.
Although they have been trained in its use, some of our blind students do not use the long cane because they feel that people do not regard a blind person with a white cane as normal.
In 1994, one of our students was killed in a tragic traffic accident just because she was too embarrassed to use a cane when traveling. The truck driver did not recognize her as a blind pedestrian and although he sounded his horn, instead of jumping out of the way, the girl jumped into path of the truck. She had been to the school in the morning to offer flowers to her former teachers on Teacher’s Day and the accident occurred on her way back home.
My plans when I go back to Vietnam
I plan to go back to Vietnam after my graduation from Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Philadelphia. My plans include:
- Introducing the latest O&M approaches, particularly those relating to O&M for students with Low Vision and to visually impaired students with additional disabilities.
- Teaching blind students and training instructors. Communicating with schools for the blind and universities in the country to achieve consistency in training approaches.
- Preparing a new O&M curriculum for the NDC School in Ho Chi Minh City
- Talking to blind persons and parents of students and acting as a role model for cane users.
- Working with the mass media to launch a public campaign on raising traffic awareness and to argue for accessible physical environments for disabled and visually impaired users.
- Working with community doctors to promote the early detection of visual impairment and disabilities.
- Providing basic training in human guide, cane techniques and daily living skills for community workers, volunteers and parents.
- Collaborating with community workers to organize parent support groups and community support for blind persons.
- Distributing instructional materials which I will bring from the US, with the support of the Ford Foundation through the Center of Educational Exchange with Vietnam to help O&M instructors develop locally appropriate technology.
This article was written to present an accurate picture of orientation and mobility in Vietnam and of the challenges that people with visual impairments face every day. I hope in 2007, when we celebrate 40 years of O&M in Vietnam, I will see progress in the journey to independent travel for the blind in my country.
References
1. Blanch, B., Wiener, W., & Welsh, R. Eds. (1997) Foundations of Orientation and Mobility (Second Edition) New York: AFB Press.
2. Hoang, T., Phuc, Pham, Nguyen T., Hien, Nguyen, T., Thu Thuy (2001) Lectures at Ha Noi Teacher Training University, Department of Special Education
3. Howard, B., (5/2001) Death Rise on Vietnam’s Risky Roads (BBC News Online) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1517218.stm
4. Kossick, R. (1970). Activating a program for the Blind in South Vietnam Blindness; American Workers for the Blind Annual (p 25-54)
5. Lam, V., Trac: (1970). Blind rehabilitation in South Vietnam. Blindness; American Workers for the Blind Annual (p55-58)
6. Nguyen, D., Minh. (2004). Education of visually impaired children in Vietnam; Challenges and perspectives. Proceedings ICEVI East Asia Conference: Bangkok, Thailand.
7. Nguyen, Q., Phong (2006) Owner of the Thien an Warming house for the Blind in Ho Chi Minh City (interview on January 27 2006)
8. Neustadt-Noy, N. & La Grow, S.J. (1997) The development of the profession of orientation and mobility around the world. P 624-641. In Blasch, B.,Wiener,W., & People Daily Online (31/11/2005) Vietnam’s first traffic plan approved. http://english.people.com.cn/200512/18/eng20051218_228957.html
10. Regulations of the Vietnamese Association of the Blind (2003) (p 10) V ietnam News (18/1/2006). Traffic accidents continue to rise as 31 die each day http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=05SOC180106
11. Vu, A., Minh: O&M instructor. Hai Duong Association of the Blind; Interview on November 7, 2005.
12. Welsh, R. Eds (1997). Foundations of Orientation and Mobility (Second Edition) New York: AFB Press.
13. World Infozone. (2004) http://www.worldinfozone.com/country.php?country=Vietnam
The Future of Training in Mobility and Orientation in the UK
Robert Avery
Rehabilitation Education Manager, Guide Dogs for the Blind Association
School of Vision & Rehabilitation Studies, Scotland
The training programmes that seek to qualify professionals to work in services delivering mobility and orientation to children and adults in the UK are, at present, in a state of major flux. Courses are offered by different agencies at a range of different levels and they lead to a wide range of outcomes, and because there is no consistency in the what is being offered, potential employers are left very unclear about the skills and abilities of those who have completed programmes and are seeking employment.
The designation and function of specialist staff in this area has evolved over the past eighty years or so. It began with the Home Teachers of the Blind who were trained in skills such as Braille, and undertook regular visits to blind people and aimed to achieve an acceptable way of life for their charges. Whilst the Home Teachers focussed on the needs of the blind at home, formal outdoor mobility began in the UK with the advent of guide dogs in October 1931. These highly trained dogs enabled people to move about safely and independently for the first time. As in the USA, following the Second World War there was a significant number of ex-servicemen who returned from the fighting with sight loss. Training with the long cane was introduced into the UK in the 1960s following a report on the use of the long cane by Dr. Alfred Leonard of Nottingham University and a visit to America by Mr. Walter Thornton, a blind youth worker, to investigate the potential benefits of this equipment. This led to the development of the role of the Mobility Instructor, training for which initially took place at the Midlands Mobility Centre and later expanded to the North and South Regional Associations for the Blind
Currently the key employment role in the field of visual impairment in the UK is that of the Rehabilitation Worker (or Officer) for the Visually Impaired or “RW”. The professional qualification for this position over the past ten years has been a Diploma of Higher Education, but recent developments have seen the major trainer, the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (Guide Dogs), withdraw from the direct provision of this programme.
In 2001, Guide Dogs embarked on a strategic review to consider service provision for the future aligned to a robust and stable financial position. Annual losses at the Guide Dogs Training School of Vision and Rehabilitation Studies were high and, consequently the charity’s Council of Trustees decided to “consider all suitable alternatives to the direct provision of training and education through the School”. It had been hoped that Guide Dogs would be able to achieve 3 outcomes:
- engage with key policy makers in social services, health and education to consider the appropriate funding of RW training for the sector
- to identify a suitable strategic partner(s) to secure the ongoing provision of education and training for the profession
- identify a more suitable location for training reducing high overhead costs
Despite stringent efforts, these were not achievable within the timescale required for decision making and Guide Dogs concluded that training of RWs for the external market was not part of its core activity. In an effort to focus on its main functions and break even financially, Guide Dogs decided to withdraw from external training and to close the Schools. A project group was established and timelines for the closure of the School’s two training centres sites were set out. This included a programme of redundancies scheduled to complete in December 2004.
Across the UK there was strong sectoral and political reaction regarding the cessation of training and the withdrawal of a national resource. In 2003, this led the Scottish Executive to propose a plan to make available to Guide Dogs financial support over 2004 and 2005 to enable the training of a further intake of students while the longer term future of RW education and training was to be explored. Subsequently the Executive approached Guide Dogs to provide another intake in Glasgow in 2005 with further financial support from them. This valuable intervention by the Scottish Executive has allowed Guide Dogs to work with other organisations to secure a long-term solution to the employment and training of Rehabilitation Workers. The work in Scotland has generated interest across the rest of the UK and it is considered that Guide Dogs are now in a much stronger position to engage in strategic debates on the future of the profession, and to identify robust solutions for the continued provision of training on a national basis.
The need for Rehabilitation Workers has not diminished. Previous attempts to quantify the adult visually impaired population of the UK have been thwarted by poor information and methodology. The sole statutory source of data is the Registration Process. This process has been the focus of much debate and consideration recently and it is likely that there will be three distinct methods of registration by the end of the year – all of which remain voluntary.
Available data show that the incidence of sight loss, as measured by the number of people who are registered as blind or partially sighted, is increasing. In 1991, the number of people registered was 270,000 and this had risen to 350,000 by 2003. Analysis of trends projects that by 2012, some 450,000 people will be registered. These figures show an increasing population of blind and partially sighted people who require more and more differentiated support services from Rehabilitation Workers.
This increase shows only those people who choose to register; data produced by RNIB on the underlying trends suggest that the figure is much higher. Although there are suggestions that previous studies contained flaws and insufficient statistical evidence to support extrapolated population estimates, nonetheless it should be recognised that we fail to meet all the needs of all visually impaired people in the UK – by a significant margin.
The specialist Rehabilitation Worker for the blind is a relatively new profession. However their value has been widely recognised by service providers and service users and the number of RWs has been steadily increasing over the years.
Currently, the registered population is almost 350,000 and is supported by around 500 RWs giving a ratio of approximately 700 registered clients to one Rehabilitation Worker. The Visual Handicap Group recommends a ratio of 240 clients to one RW and this would indicate that there is a current requirement for almost 1500 RWs to meet the need of the registered population, while only 644 are employed. Based on the projected increase in the incidence of registered blind and partially sighted, there will be a requirement for 1,871 RWs by 2012. Even at current caseload levels there would be a requirement for 752 RWs in 2012.
To further complicate matters, there is currently no regulation of the profession in the UK, with no plans for registration with relevant regulatory bodies to do so in the near to mid-term. This has a direct impact of the potential salaries and perceived status of the profession, which is one of few professions within the Health and Social Care sector that still has a qualifying award below degree level. The lack of a coherent professional body has a further impact on the professional standing of the Rehabilitation Worker as the profession has no representation at UK or devolved country government level. It is also possible for an unqualified person to be designated as a Rehabilitation Worker since, unlike other professionals, there is no security of title.
A further complication is the lack of national occupational standards to measure the performance of the Rehabilitation Worker against, or to define the elements to be included in the qualifying educational programme. An attempt to address this deficiency was undertaken during 2004, when the Training Organisation for Personal Social Services (TOPSS), now Skills for Care & Development, commissioned the work of researching and writing these standards. LMG Associates in partnership with Guide Dogs were successful in leading this venture, and an extensive range of consultation exercises resulted in the production of a set of draft standards, which were published in May 2005. The standards were not, however, adopted but put aside until a similar exercise covering the rest of the sensory impairment sector has been completed. This is currently taking place and is due to report back in mid 2007.
The lack of a cohesive direction for the future of training has seen a fragmentation of training, with awards at Diploma of Higher Education, Foundation Degree and BTEC Advanced Diploma along with a number of other short courses all springing up to fill the void for service providers. The various awards cover different aspects of the role of the Rehabilitation Worker, from simple orientation and mobility to the full range of skills.
Reductions in the availablitiy of funding is also a major barrier to the expansion of qualified staff and a growing number of students are forced to fund their own training. Continuing in this way is neither economically viable nor sustainable in the long term.
The University of Central England who, with financial support from the RNIB, deliver a course leading to the Diploma of Higher Education, revised the structure of their delivery in 2003 to facilitate easier access for students wishing to join the profession. The revised structure requires only a small number of weeks of attendance at the university over a two-year period, with most of the study being done at home via electronic media.
Guide Dogs’ decision to withdraw from the direct provision of training has been tempered by endeavours to secure the future of RW education and training in the mainstream of Higher Education. During Guide Dogs’ strategic review, a number of potential partners were approached with a view to establishing their willingness and ability to take over the existing course. While none were able make such a commitment in 2001, they have been more interested in the proposal at the heart of the model now being considered. It is now likely that a number of universities would be willing to align the RW course with their Social Work or Occupational Therapy courses thereby increasing their own involvement in the sector and offering a further and more specialised option to prospective students. This model also allows for greater and more targeted marketing to encourage enrolments from school-leavers, those wishing to re-train and enter a new professional field and others looking to develop their career opportunities.
In this model staff expertise in the form of direct teaching input would be bought in by the universities as required, while blending those aspects of the new course which are more generic into existing programmes of study such as Social Work and Occupational Therapy. The draft occupational standards will inform the development of the new programmes within these universities thereby developing a skilled professional capable of responding to the challenges presented by the client group well into the future.
This method of delivery will result in a situation whereby students attending the RW course will be able to apply to their Local Education Authority in England and Wales, the Student Awards Agency for Scotland or the Northern Ireland Office for support with course fees. As a “designated course” the programme will also be eligible for mandatory awards support via the Department for Education and Skills. It will also be eligible for Student Loan and Career Development Loan support.
Overall, this approach complies with the advice from the Department of Health to place RW training in the mainstream of Higher Education and Training so that it might access mainstream funding mechanisms and support, rather than have to rely on organisations such as Guide Dogs and RNIB to fund it.
The service provided to children is even more complex. A recent study undertaken by Guide Dogs as part of the Rethink Rehab campaign indicated that the majority of provision out of school was provided by Rehabilitation Workers whose primary role is to deliver services to adults. Since independent living and communication skills are generally delivered at school, either specialist or mainstream, the main skill delivered by Rehabilitation Workers is orientation and mobility. Models of delivery depend on the type of school attended by the child. Specialist schools generally employ their own mobility instructor. In the case of the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh, for example, there is a team of mobility instructors, all with different initial qualifications.
Whilst a small number of Rehabilitation Workers based in community social services departments have undertaken additional studies in working with children and young people, most have no specific training in this area. The West of England School for Young People with Little or no Sight offers three training options for persons wishing to work with children, validated by the University of Plymouth. These are primarily aimed at developing their own staff, but some are available externally and lead to qualifications in supporting young people.
The majority of orientation and mobility trained staff with a qualification in working with children are members of an organisation called Mobility Instructors Specialising in Education (MISE). This voluntary body organises Continuing Professional Development opportunities for its members, as well as holding an annual one-day conference to facilitate the sharing of good practice ideas.
There is growing recognition that working with children is one of a range of specialist aspects of the role of the Rehabilitation Worker and that structured post-qualifying training needs to be available to ensure the most appropriate service is available to this section of the service user group. In addition to the generic occupational standards being designed to underpin the initial education & training of Rehabilitation Workers, a further set of standards will be required for the specialist areas that qualified staff may choose to concentrate on such as work with children.
The significant shortfall of qualified Rehabilitation Workers would need a lengthy period of delivery of the new initial qualifying programme before a satisfactory level of service provision could be achieved. A study amongst Rehabilitation Workers, undertaken as part of the Rethink Rehab project, aimed to identify the activities that occupy the majority of the worker’s time. This revealed that organisational pressures mean that there is a heavy focus on undertaking assessments to keep waiting lists down, resulting in Rehabilitation Workers spending 40% of their time doing assessments of various types, and a further 35% of their time on administrative tasks. This has major potential implications for the future role of the Rehabilitation Worker.
In their report “Perspective on Training” (1995) the Visual Handicap Group identified a number of ways in which the role of the Rehabilitation could change to better meet the needs of visually impaired people in the UK. A multi-agency, multi-disciplinary approach would ensure that the full range of needs would be addressed, with the possibility of volunteers being taught to deliver classes such as Braille and to provide support in delivering small items of equipment and to assist with administrative tasks. Whilst the use of volunteers is high in the voluntary sector, an adaptation of this thinking could be applied more universally to the current situation. The application of occupational standards, initially intended to identify the full role of the Rehabilitation Worker, could be utilised to provide a clear set of skills for the Rehabilitation Assistant – a role that is being increasingly utilised to address the shortfall in the availability of fully qualified staff. Validated training through work-based learning programmes, supported by the Rehabilitation Worker, would enable service users to have their needs met more speedily and appropriately, with fewer Rehabilitation Workers required to deliver the more advanced aspects of the role. This would facilitate greater specialisation for the Rehabilitation Worker, extend their role to include supervisory activity of support staff as well as assisting in the development of others.
References
1. College and Association of Teachers of the blind (1934) Handbook for hometeachers of the blind National Institute for the Blind: London
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/visugate/public_hometeac.hcsp#P398_65489 Retrieved 4th June 2006
2. Rose, J (1970) Changing Focus - The Development of Blind Welfare in Britain Hutchinson& Co Ltd: London
3. Visual Handicap Group (1995) Perspective on training - A consultative report Royal National Institute for the Blind: London
4. Certificate of Higher Education in Mobility and Independence Education for Children and Young Adults who are Visually Impaired
5. http://www.westengland.ac.uk/pages/external_courses.htm Retrieved 4th June 2006
6. The Certificate of Higher Education for Supporting Young People with Visual Impairment
7. http://www.westengland.ac.uk/pages/external_courses.htm Retrieved 4th June 2006
8. MQVI Programme
9. http://www.westengland.ac.uk/pages/external_courses.htm Retrieved 4th June 2006
"Warm or ‘Warming’ Houses" are refuges/shelters set up by individuals or NGOs that give a warm welcome to disadvantaged children such as street children or children with disabilities. Some, such as the Thien An Warming House for the Blind or Nhat Hong Warming House for the Blind in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam seek to provide some education in addition to welfare.