Awareness in dealing with people suffering from sensory loss.
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by
aliyahsayeed168icloudcom (student)
Introductory awareness of sensory loss.
(Task 1)
Understand the factors that impact on an individual with sensory los and steps that can be taken to overcome these.
* Describe how a range of factors have a negative and positive impact on individuals with sensory loss. (1.1)
* Identify steps that can be taken to overcome factors that have a negative impact on individuals with sensory loss. (1.2)
* Explain how individuals with sensory loss can be disabled by attitudes and beliefs. (1.3)
* Identify steps that could be taken to overcome disabling attitudes and beliefs. (1.4)
(Task 2)
Understand the importance of effective communication for individuals with sensory loss.
* Outline what needs to be considered when communicating with individuals with:
* Sight loss
* Hearing loss
* Deaf blindness. (2.1)
* Describe how effective communication may have a positive impact on the lives of individuals with sensory loss. (2.2)
* Explain how information can be made accessible to individuals with sensory loss. (2.3)
(Task 3)
Know the main causes and conditions of sensory loss.
* Outline the main causes of sensory loss. (3.1)
* Explain the difference between congenital and acquired sensory loss. (3.2)
* State what percentage of the general population is likely to have sensory loss. (3.3)
(Task 4)
Know how to recognise when an individual may be experiencing sight and/or hearing loss.
* Outline the indicators and signs of:
* Sight loss
* Hearing loss
* Deaf blindness. (4.1)
* Explain where additional advice and support can be sourced in relation to sensory loss. (4.2)
(Task 5)
Know how to report concerns about sensory loss.
* Describe whom and how concerns about sight and/or hearing loss can be reported. (5.1)
(Task 1)
(1.1)
There are many different facts that can have an impact on people with sensory loss. Communication and awareness play big roles in the impact. They may find it difficult to feed themselves, dressing and mobility. Hobbies and interests can have negative impact on their lives. They may also feel scared and alone due to this. There can be positive factors that can help out the person such as increased help, aids for support and a good support team could give them a brighter outlook on life. Organizations might help the ‘deaf and blind’ with many different aspects of their life to support or to help them find the right kind of support.
Communication can be very difficult to somebody with sight or hearing loss. For sight loss, reading may be difficult, also, facial expressions and body language is missed, or misread, so it could be hard maintaining relationships. Orientation can be affected and people can lose a sense of what is around them and where they are. This can result in a loss of sense of freedom, a loss of security, and a loss of control in their environment. Hearing loss can make face to face communication difficult and can cause people to feel isolated and excluded from conversations.
Positive impact - There are various ways that hearing impaired people can communicate well such as sign language, lip reading, body language and pictures.
* Communication: Being able to share with others what they feel.
* Information: Being able to find out about services.
* Familiar layouts and routines: Being more independent.
* Mobility: Learning new skills and developing confidence.
Negative impact - these methods rely on the cooperation of others example: learning to sign, facing individuals when speaking, speaking clearly, not treating them as any different to someone who can hear or see normally, or finding their disability funny and so on.
* Communication: Feeling frustrated due to not being understood.
* Information: Not being able to make own choices and decisions.
* Familiar layouts and routines: Not feeling confident in own environment.
* Mobility: Not going out for fear of getting lost.
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* Mobility: Learning new skills and developing confidence.
Negative impact - these methods rely on the cooperation of others example: learning to sign, facing individuals when speaking, speaking clearly, not treating them as any different to someone who can hear or see normally, or finding their disability funny and so on.
* Communication: Feeling frustrated due to not being understood.
* Information: Not being able to make own choices and decisions.
* Familiar layouts and routines: Not feeling confident in own environment.
* Mobility: Not going out for fear of getting lost.
A range of factors – including communication, information, familiar layouts and routines, and mobility – can impact positively and negatively on individuals who have sensory loss.
(1.2)
There are several things that can be done to overcome the negative impact that people with sensory loss experience. Generally, if a person loses one of their senses, the others compensate by heightening. For example, a person who cannot see will have a heightened sense of hearing and smell. Make sure that areas are clear of obstacles that an individual with sight impairment might trip over or bump into, take an individual who has a hearing impairment to a quiet, well lit area to talk, make sure that hearing aids are working or that glasses prescriptions are updated. Challenge any discrimination immediately and explain why it is wrong, model good practice, tell someone who is addressing you rather than the individual to speak directly to them, use posters, leaflets and social activities such as coffee mornings to inform the public.
It’s important to take action and consider the different steps that can be taken to overcome these. The steps that can be taken will depend on the factor that’s impacting negatively on the individual and their preferences.
Ensure you get to know the individual, their needs, wishes and preferences. Ensure support is available. Ensure you make the adaptations, example: working practices, the environment. Ensure you seek advice and information from others.
(1.3)
Societal attitudes and beliefs can impact individuals with sensory loss in quite a negative way because, people in society can be very judgmental towards people with disabilities, and put them in a group of people with below average intelligence and assume they can’t do or think the same way as other people without disabilities can. People in society can also be very prejudice and ignorant and think they are better than people with sensory loss, also thinking it gives them the right to make fun at them and making life difficult in the process. Although, not all people think the same way there are many other people in society that are very open towards individuals with disabilities and sensory loss and can be very helpful and kind, this can have a positive impact on people’s lives. There are a range of factors that societal attitudes and beliefs impact on service provisions, discrimination is one of the biggest problem in today’s society, people with sensory loss are treated differently, and there a lot of barriers that need to be overcome, service provision is a term used to describe a wide range of activities, including the provision of assistive devices, rehabilitation services, occupational therapy and health services.
How others think and feel about individuals who have sensory loss (attitudes) can be disabling if they are based on assumptions or generalisations. All of these attitudes can be disabling as they can affect an individual’s:
* Confidence
* Self-esteem
* Mental health and well-being
* Expectations of themselves and others
* Trust in others
* Wishes for the future
(1.4)
The first step in overcoming limiting beliefs is to identify those beliefs. The beliefs that you hold are either empowering, or, dis-empowering. It should never be a question of which belief is right versus wrong. Your mindset and your ways of thinking either help you, or hold you back. Your beliefs become your reality. Whether your belief is a way of thinking that will help you achieve your goals or not, you will always find evidence to support your belief, and to have it become your reality. Overcoming limiting beliefs requires that you identify all of them first! As stated in 1.3 disabling attitudes and beliefs can have a significant impact on individuals who have sensory loss. Overcoming disabling attitudes and beliefs involves:
* Getting to know individuals who have sensory loss
* Listening to the views of individuals who have sensory loss
* Respecting that all individuals who have a sensory loss are unique
* Seeing an individual who has a sensory loss first and foremost as a person
* Being open about what individuals who have a sensory loss can do
* Not making assumptions about individuals who have sensory loss
* Not engaging in discriminatory behavior
* Not engaging in disabling attitudes
* Not engaging in disabling beliefs
* Not seeing individuals who have sensory loss as all the same
You can overcome disabling attitudes and beliefs in sensory loss by challenging discrimination immediately. You can also get involved in social activities that promote positive attitudes.
Disabling attitudes – Steps to be taken: Try and make a person see, by explaining verbally and showing them how an individual with a sensory loss will be affected in many ways in their normal day-to-day life, compared to how they live day-to-day with their senses. Look at it from their point of view and try to understand, why they have this attitude towards individuals with sensory loss.
Disabling beliefs – Steps to be taken: From own beliefs and experience, people with beliefs often seem to treat individuals with sensory loss with a lot more respect, patience and time than they would a person who has all their senses. This is because, they believe they shouldn’t be discriminated and should be treated the same as anybody else but to help them so they can also learn and benefit the same as everybody else.
(Task 2)
(2.1)
Individuals with sensory loss will communicate with others in different ways and will very often use more than one method to do so.
* Sight loss:
* Impaired vision also affects the ability to communicate. We look for visual clues during conversation. Some are: Facial cues indicating mood or emotion, hand gestures indicating size or direction. Turn-taking cues, such as raised eyebrows. Feedback, such as head nodding. Those with poor vision may be lost or misunderstand these types of non-verbal messages. There are some simple things that you can do when talking to someone who has visual impairments: Identify yourself when approaching. Describe, with words, instead of gestures. Increase the room lighting; make sure the light is not behind you. Identify yourself and make it clear that you are speaking to them and not someone else, they can’t read your body language so you need to be clear about your meanings and directions, a noisy environment can make it difficult for them to concentrate on your voice.
* Hearing loss:
* Individuals with hearing loss can use: Objects of reference, photographs, pictures and symbols, British sign language, Makaton, lip reading and interpreters. Be respectful when trying to get their attention example: use a light touch on the arm, if they lip read they need to see your face, you need to speak clearly at a normal pace and tone, you may need to be patient and repeat things.
* Deaf blindness:
* Individuals who have dual sensory loss can use: Manual alphabets, haptic communication, intervenors and communication guides. Some of the above plus you need to know the levels of deafness and blindness and their preferred method of communication. Someone who was born deafblind has special needs that cannot be met by services for people who are only deaf or only blind. They may have other physical and/or learning disabilities.
The following factors must also be considered when communicating with individuals who have sight loss, hearing loss and deaf blindness: Where communication takes place, ensuring the background noises are minimised which can result in more effective communication. The time available, so individuals do not feel rushed. Being aware of the messages you are giving to individual’s example: through your body language, you’re facial expressions and the tone of your voice.
(2.2)
People with sensory loss such as hearing or sight can benefit from different types of effective communication. For example, those with hearing loss may benefit from using sign language or pictures to communicate. Those with sight loss may benefit most from vocal communication. A person with hearing loss or sight loss needs to be respected as an individual, being treated like any other person, to promote their rights, example: their right to have an interpreter at health appointments, not being patronised or discriminated against because of their disability, being treated with dignity, people taking the time to get to know them and use their preferred method of communication, how this would make the individual feel, example: valued, increase their self-esteem, self-confidence, feel empowered, that they have something to offer their community and society, increase their social network and make new friends, open up new opportunities to them, open up their world, more opportunities, reduce their dependence on others so helping to increase their independence, reduce chances of abuse/being taken advantage of, respecting their privacy and dignity, being able to express how they feel, their likes and dislikes, who they are, a sense of self-identity, can reduce possibility of challenging behaviour as able to express themselves, increases chances of other people being able to get to know them, form relationships, to be like everyone else.
Methods of communication to help make it effective for a deaf or blind person: sign language, deafblind alphabet, braille, information in an 'Easy Read' Format, DVD, audio disc, audio books, photos, pictures, signs and symbols, objects of reference example: a coat means to go out, expressing themselves through art, using a fax machine, texting, assistive technology such as 'Type talk', owning a guide dog, Hearing Dogs for the Deaf.
(2.3)
There’s many different ways to make information accessible to individuals who have sensory loss, for example: an individual who has sight loss information in Braille or large print may be required for an individual who has hearing loss information using pictures of British Sign Language may be required and for an individual who is deaf blindness information may be provided through an intervenor.
The patient requires getting a special check up from a qualified doctor in this field who will determine the senses that are still functioning in the person's body. From this point the specialist can teach the relatives some ways of conversing information to this person easily. By using whatever senses the person has. For example, Helen Keller learned sign language by touch.
Make sure you have the person’s attention, always tell a visually impaired person that you are there. Ask the person what will make communication effective and do that. Make sure any equipment, including hearing aids, is switched on and working. Good light is important; face the light so that your full face can be seen. Avoid background noise; turn it off or move somewhere quieter. Clear speech: speak clearly, speak a little more slowly than usual, but keep the natural rhythm of speech. Speak a little louder, but don’t shout as this will distort your voice and lip patterns. Try to make your lip patterns clear, but don’t over – exaggerate. Keep your face visible. Don’t smoke, eat, chew gum or cover your mouth with your hand. Focus on the person you are talking to. If you are using an interpreter, always talk directly to the deaf person, not the interpreter. Help the other person to understand: Make the subject clear from the start and if you change the subject, make sure the person knows. Use gestures and facial expression to support what you are saying if necessary, repeat phrases. If this doesn’t work, try re-phrasing the whole sentence. Some words are easier to lip-read than others don’t hurry, take your time be ready to write things down. Be aware that the effort of concentration on communicating can be hard work and cannot be maintained for long periods of time. Be-aware that if a person is smiling and nodding it doesn’t necessarily mean they have understood you. Other ways to communicate if a person can no longer understand speech there are other ways to communicate. Some of these take time to learn. Learning a new communication can be challenging.
Accessible information means information that is:
* Easily understood
* Usable
* Non-complex
* Clear and concise
* Not written in jargon
* Suitable to meet the individuals needs and their preferences
(Task 3)
(3.1)
The main cause of sensory loss is aging, as we age our senses become less and less. Congenital sensory loss meaning we are born with it. Sensory loss can also be caused by an illness or by having an accident.
Causes of sensory loss: Premature birth, infections, ageing, accidents, illnesses e.g. Meniere’s disease, rare syndromes e.g. Usher.
by
aliyahsayeed168icloudcom (student)
