Visual News - Issue 5, Winter 2010 - Southern Health and Social ...

RNIB’s Finding Your Feet programmeBackgroundFinding Your Feet is a peer support programme for recentlydiagnosed blind and partially sighted people, designed to assistpeople who are struggling to come to terms with sight loss.The programme is based on peer support and comprises ofworkshops covering finance benefits, knowing your legal rights,daily living products, fitness & health, leisure, emotional supportand most importantly, it provides an opportunity to meet andconnect with other people who are also experiencing sight loss.The RNIB has been working in partnership with the Southern Trustand have delivered two Pilot „Finding Your Feet‟ events. The firstone was a three day residential course, and the second was a sixweek modular course held in Portadown. There is currently a sixweek programme running in Newry, and there are plans to makethis programme available to clients living in Armagh andDungannon if there is enough interest.The programme offers a first steps practical and emotional supportbased programme for people who had recently been diagnosedwith sight loss.The Finding your Feet Programme and WorkshopsFinding Ourselves- an initial opportunity to share expectations and hopes for theprogramme, to share aspirations, issues and fears. It providesthe opportunity to meet others who are also living with sightloss.Making the most of your sight- this session is useful for people who have a little bit of sight.Its aims to discuss how people can maximise their sight withlow vision aids, colour contrasting, lighting and magnifiers. Italso aims to work positively with whatever remaining vision isleft and to consider techniques to tackle reading and otherevery day tasks.Page 16 of 38