Adult service delivery
After a year of consulting thoroughly with our members, staff, volunteers, supporters, consumer organisations and our Board, we realised we needed to change the way we work and the way we provide services to our clients and members.
We know how important it is for our clients and members to:
- Have access to information, literacy, adaptive equipment and technology.
- Independently manage everyday tasks at home by developing essential blindness skills.
- Move safely and confidently in the community.
- Contribute to the paid or unpaid workforce.
The new service model is a different way of delivering essential blindness services. The outcomes for our clients and members remain the same but the way we provide the services is changing. All of this change begins with new clients and members that join from July 2010 onwards.
Our new approach is by offering a variety of sessions that will teach blind, partially sighted and deafblind members how to adapt to vision loss in daily life, how to use special equipment and to develop new techniques to live independently and be as self reliant as they choose to be. Initially a new member (either new or an existing member requiring a new service) will benefit from a personalised programme that is designed specifically to meet their goals related to living with sight loss. The duration of the training will be determined by our needs assessor and new members will be allocated a key contact person at this point.
The introduction of this new model will start in the South Island in August 2010, followed by the North Island in October 2010.