Sensory impairment Flashcards
What is sensory impairment?
- When one or more of a persons sense no longer normal
- Does not have to have full loss of sense to be sensory impaired
What are the key care needs the NHS implement for sensory impairment?
- Communication
- Accessing services
- Mobility
- Accessibility and isolation
- Rehabilitation
What is the current terminology for visual impairments?
- Sight impaired
- Severely sight impaired
What are the causes of visual impairment in the UK?
- Uncorrected refracted error
- AMD
- Cataract
- Glaucoma
- Diabetic retinopathy
What are some symptoms of visual impairment?
- Severe sudden eye pain
- Hazy, blurred, double vision
- Seeing flashes of light or sudden bright floating spots
- Seeing floating spider webs
- Swollen red eyes
What is a cataract?
- Clouding of the lens of the eye which prevents clear vision
- Related to ageing process although some children can be born with it
- Leading cause of blindness
What is AMD?
- Age-related macular degeneration
- Involves loss of persons central field of vision
- Macular retina develops degenerative lesions and cells of the macula become damages and scarred
What are the two types of macular degeneration?
- Wet
- Dry
What is Wet macualr degeneration?
- Causes severe sight loss in matter of months
- Growth of new vessels under retina which break and leak into macula casuing scarring
What is dry macular degeneration?
- Bilateral condition
- 90% of cases
- Gradual loss of central vision
- Layers of macula become progressively thinner, functions less efficiently
- Can’t recognise people as can’t see faces clearly
What is a glaucoma?
- Characteristic optic neuropathy determined by both structural change and functional deficit
- Caused by rise in intraocular pressure
- Bilateral condition and sight will never recover
- Can be treated if diagnosed early
What are the two most common forms of glaucoma?
- Primary open angle glaucoma (POAG)
- Angle closure glaucoma (ACG)
What is POAG?
- Primary Open Angle Glaucoma
- Slow and insidious onset
- Anterior chamber angle open
- Caused by drainage channels in eye getting clogged over time
What is ACG?
- Less common and more acute
- Caused by drainage in eye become suddenly blocked
- Rise of pressure inside eye quickly
What is diabetic retinopathy?
- Vascular occlusion and dilations in eye with people with diabetes mellitus occur
- Progresses into prolifertaive retinopathy with growth of new blood vessels
- Macular oedema decreases visual activty
What is diabetic retinopathy?
- Occurs in retina of people with diabetes mellitus
- Vascular occlusion and dilations occur
- Lead to proliferative retinopathy and growth of new blood vessels
- Lead to macular oedema and decrease in visual activity
What are the causes of diabetic retinopathy?
- Retina is needed to convert light into electrical signals that are sent to brain through optic nerve to produce images that you see
- High blood sugar levels can cause blood vessels supplying retina to become blocked or leak
- Leads to background retinopathy
- Lead to pre-proliferative retinopathy
- Finally lead to proliferative retinopathy
What is background retinopathy?
- Tiny bulges develop in BV and may bleed slightly
- Doesn’t really affect vision
What is pre-proliferative retinopathy?
- More sever and widespread changes affect BV
- Sig bleeding into eye
What is proliferative retinopathy?
- Scar tissue and new blood vessels
- BV are Weak and bleed easily
- Develop on retina
- Result in some loss of vision
What are some risk factors for diabetic retinopathy?
- Duration of diabetes
- Level of glycemia
- Presence of high blood pressure
- Dependence on insulin
- Pregnancy
- Nutritional
What is hemianopia?
- Blindness in one half of visual field
- Can be caused by variety of medical conditions like stroke
- Sight loss can be upper, lower, left or rigth
What is the prevention for visual impairment?
- Regular eye exams
- Protect eyes from sun
- Protective eye wear at work
- Know family history
- Seek treatment quickly
- Stop smoking
- Eating healthy and managing obesity
What are some difficulties visually impaired people experience?
- Not being able to access printed material
- Difficulty in accessing internet or electronical devices
- Difficulty getting to destinations
- Lack of awareness of others as to how to help
- Accessing unfamiliar buildings
How can we maximise communication for people with visual impairment?
- Identify yourself always
- Use names to identify people esp in group settings
- Keep visually impaired person informed of people leaving or entering room
- Tell them what youre doing before you do it
- Provide info in other formats like email, extra large print, braille, allow extra time
- Prepare surgery approprately
What is a hearing impairment?
- Someone who is not able to hear as well as someone with normal hearing
- Hearing threshold of 25 dB or better in both ears is normal
What are some functional impacts of hearing impairment?
- Ability to communicate with others
- Spoken language development delayed in children
- Adverse effect on academic performance
- Access to suitable accommodations important but not always available
What are some social and emotional impact of hearing impaiment?
- Loneliness
- Isolation
- Frustation
What are some congenital causes of hearing loss?
- Maternal rubella
- Low birth weight
- Birth asphyxia
What are some acquired causes of hearing loss?
- Meningitis, measles and mumps
- Chronic ear infection
- Otitis media
- Injury to head or ear
- Recreational exposure to loud sounds
What are some signs of hearing impairment?
- Inactivity
- Reduced development of speech and language skills
- Deterioration of speech
- Irritability
- Austistc like behaviour
How can we maximise communication for the hearing loss?
- Ask if want to use loop system
- Establish persons preferred communication method
- Face person and don’t away
- Repeat, rephrase
- Finger spelling
- Write things down
- Reduce background noise
- Allow extra time
- Hearing aids switched on and functioning
