PRELIM Flashcards
Composition of low vision team
- Individual with low vision family members
- Eye care providers
- Human service/allied health personnel
- Education/rehabilitation specialists
An ophthalmologist or optometrist who has additional training and expertise about low vision.
Clinical Low vision specialists
Purpose of eye care providers
Assess clinical visual functioning
Matches various treatment options
Prescribes various optical and non-optical devices as appropriate
Provides follow up services and examinations
Evaluates and treats cognition, communication, and typically addresses swallowing.
Speech and language specialist
Evaluates and treats participation in activities of daily living, sensory-motor integration, and upper extremity functional use.
Occupational therapist
Evaluates and treats musculoskeletal impairments, posture, positioning, balance and ambulation, and identifies functional physical deficits that may be caused by visual or vestibular impairments
Physical therapist
Facilitates effective transition between adolescence and adulthood, and who ensures that an individual is adequately prepared for life beyond school.
Transition coordinator
Special education and development of children with congenital disabilities
Habilation
Teaching of visual efficiency skills as well as daily living skills
Habilitation
No prior experience of learning skills
Habilitation
Acquired impairment in late adolescent/adulthood
Rehabilitation
Low vision services:
Habilitation
Rehabilitation
Vision rehabilitation services
A wide range of professional services that can restore functioning after vision loss
Rehabilitation
Have symptoms or changes in organ
Organic
Classification by aetiology
Organic
Functional
Classification by the period of occurence
Congenital
Acquired
Classification by the progression of disorder
Regressing
Stable
Progressive
Classification by type of visual disorders
Loss of VA
Changes in VF
Color deficiency
Reduced contrast sensitivity
Classification by characteristic
Acute
Chronic
Recurrent
Classification by age
Infants and preschool age
School age
Adults
Elderly
Classification by social background
Functional
Dysfunctional
Absent
Classification by the presence of additional disadvantage
Changes in appearance
Multiple disabilities
Discriminating or incapacitating situation of permanent nature
Vision impairment can be:
Congenital
Acquired
Adjustment to blindness or low vision depends on:
Etiology
Progression
Stability
Extent of vision loss
Loss of vision can be:
Rapid
Slow
Impact of vision loss to:
• Work
• School
• Leisure activities
• Family life
• Friendships
Erroneously believed stereotypic ideas:
Inferior and useless
Pitiable
To be feared, avoided esp in intimate relationship
Emotionally and sexually maladjusted
Paying for precious sin, immoral, and evil
Vision loss impacts three (3) major aspects of a person’s life
Functional implications
Social implications
Psychological implications
Functional implications:
Site of disorder determines level of functioning
• Mobility affected if loss is lower half of visual field
• Reading affected if loss is right field of vision
• Education is a problem if central vision is lost
• Physical activities are difficult if peripheral vision is affected
• Different visual acuities of 2 eyes may cause depth perception problem
Sociological implications
• Behavior influences attitude of others toward self, but reflects on individual’s self-concept and self-esteem
• How visually challenged person feels about self, blindness, and attitudes of others towards self are important in self-esteem
Sociological implications:
Immature and egocentric behavior
• Visually challenged children and young adults tend to be more socially immature
• Remain more egocentric longer than sighted peers
Sociological implications:
Isolation and withdrawal
• Unable to choose companions for conversation
• Wait for others to initiate conversation
• In a group they are unable to participate when comments directed to them
• Unable to observe the nonverbal gestures in social interaction
• Sighted people’s uncertainty about approaching a visually challenged person
Sociological implications:
Passivity and dependence
• The visually challenged persons tend to be more passive, less assertive
• The reasons:
• Difficulty to react quickly with appropriate reaction in emergency situations
• Decisions being made on behalf of them without consultation
• Depriving them of developing and practicing their abilities to make choices
• Being unable to observe and perceive social courtesies
Sociological implications:
Inadequate social role models
• Visually impaired person finds it difficult to emulate the available role models
• Number, range, and variety of observations are more limited
• Opportunities for participating in social situations more restricted
• Don’t realized some of their behaviors are socially unacceptable
Psychological implications:
Denial
Anger
Fear
Grief
Depression
Isolation
Withdrawal
Low self-esteem
Refuse to accept the fact
Denial
Anger with the situation, with a particular person or with God
Anger
Fear of losing residual vision, job, leading life
Fear
Grieving about the loss and the situation
Grief
Depressed about loss, being involved and lose interest in life
Depression
Prefers to be isolated rather than depending to anybody
Isolation
Uninvolved from all social situations
Withdrawal
Being low in mood, unwilling to recognize one’s own calibers
Low self-esteem
Basic losses to psychological security:
I am not normal.. I am cripple.. I am not a whole person
Loss of physical integrity
Basic losses to psychological security:
I don’t believe what I hear.. I don’t know what it is that I am touching
Loss of confidence in the remaining senses
Basic losses to psychological security:
The world is no longer real, the things i knew, the people I knew, and the places I knew, no longer seems to exist
Loss of reality contact with environment
Basic losses to psychological security:
I no longer see the scenery around me
Loss of visual background
Basic losses to psychological security:
I was always afraid in the dark
Loss of light security
Basic losses in basic skills:
I cannot get from place to place
Loss of mobility
Basic losses in communication:
I can’t read a book… I can’t read a letter
Loss of ease of written communication
Basic losses in communication:
When I am talking with someone, I can’t see his/her gestures
Loss of ease of spoken communication
Basic losses in communication:
I am unable to keep with present times
Loss of informational progress
Basic losses of appreciation:
I can’t see my children at play, I can’t watch my wife in the kitchen preparing dinner for me..
Loss of visual perception of the pleasurable
Basic losses of appreciation:
I can’t beautiful sunset, a painting
Loss of visual perception of the beautiful
Basic losses concerning occupation and financial status:
I can’t play cricket. I must give up my stamp collection
Loss of recreation
Basic losses concerning occupation and financial status:
I have got to change my work, the job I trained for is now impossible
Loss of career vocational goal job opportunity
Basic losses concerning occupation and financial status:
Who is going to pay the rent, who will pay for my family’s food
Loss of financial security
Resulting losses of the whole personality:
I am “helpless blind man”, I must always depend on others to do things for me
Loss of personal independence
Resulting losses of the whole personality:
Blind people are a minority group.. Sighted people are afraid of me
Loss of social adequacy
Resulting losses of the whole personality:
I can’t have a private life.. When I use the white cane I am telling everyone to look at me
Loss of obscurity
Resulting losses of the whole personality:
I am not much good anymore.. I am poor example of a capable man/woman
Loss of self-esteem
Resulting losses of the whole personality:
Blindness has a common power to upset, undermine and change a life-long balance of personality of the individual
Loss of total personality organization
A number of factors affect individual’s reaction to vision loss:
Degree of loss
Speed of onset
Medical prognosis
Age at which occurs
Preconceived ideas the person holds about blindness
Other health factors
• May be a time of withdrawal
• Period of protective emotional anesthesia in response to severe stress
• Cannot predict how long stage will last
• Caring friends and family can just be there and no specific action or words are necessary
• Encouraging a false hope that vision will be restored is not a good idea.
Shock and disbelief
• Person expresses feelings through a strong negative attitude
• Frustrating for caregivers and family members
• Medical profession, caregivers, family and friends can become the object of patient’s anger
Anger
• Outright denial of the situation or refusal to accept visual limitations
• At this point a person may refuse to contact with an agency for the blind
Denial
• Sudden feelings of being different and a sense of loss control may be the basis for this kind of response
• Patient prefers isolation
Depression
• Person starts to emerge from state of depression and begins to recognize inevitable effect of changed vision
• More realistic to describe adaptation as accepting the unpleasant reality of the situation by recognizing remaining assets and capabilities
Realization
• Person recognizes that the loss is final and irreversible
Acceptance
Factors that may help people with vision loss towards acceptance:
• Meeting others who have managed
• Discovering ways of coping that have worked in past crises
• Time to grieve for their lost vision
• Support from family and friends
• Obtaining practical help with day to day tasks until they feel ready to assume more responsibility
• Obtaining information about available community support
Basic losses to psychological security
Loss of physical integrity
Loss of confidence in the remaining senses
Loss of reality contact with environment
Loss of visual background
Loss of light security
Basic losses in basic skills
Loss of mobility
Loss of techniques of daily living
I can’t comb my hair.. I can’t cook my food..
Loss of techniques of daily living
Basic losses in communication
Loss of ease of written communication
Loss of ease of spoken communication
Loss of informational progress
Basic losses of appreciation
Loss of visual perception of the pleasurable
Loss of visual perception of the beautiful
Basic losses concerning occupation and financial status
Loss of recreation
Loss of career vocational job goal opportunity
Loss of financial security
Resulting losses of the whole personality
Loss of personal independence
Loss of social adequacy
Loss of obscurity
Loss of personal total organization
Low self-esteem
