Services Update
- Cochlear implant for Diam
- Vocational placement team
- New DM for Adaptive Living
- Braille workshops a success
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Cochlear implant for Diam
Diam, the deafblind child who featured in the winter issue of Outlook received a cochlear implant in July. Diam went to the National Audiology Centre for initial programming and to switch on his cochlear implant speech processor. Before the switch, Diam had been crying, but afterwards he quietened, his eyes widened and he turned his head when a wooden box full of marbles was shaken.
Diam's goal over the next few weeks is to get used to wearing his speech processor and to steadily adapt to hearing new sound.
Vocational placement team
Vocational Placement Co-coordinators have placed 50 members into jobs since June 2004. In July this year they transferred from the Adaptive Living division to the Blindness Awareness and Prevention (BAP) division. Now they are busy developing a new service delivery model to improve vocational services for members. Supporting their work are BAP's new employment brochures ('Employer Awareness: the right person for the right job' and 'Blindness and Employment FAQs for employers') plus a 'Blind Ambition' DVD targeting employers.
New DM for Adaptive Living
The RNZFB welcomed their new divisional manager for Adaptive Living on 1 August. Helen McKenzie, based in the Auckland office, has a strong clinical background. She served in senior management at Starship (children's hospital) and was a senior manager in acute and allied health services at Middlemore Hospital. She also operated her own physiotherapy practice for 11 years. Her interests include disabled sailing.
Braille workshops a success
The proposed Unified English Braille Code has been the subject of consultation in nine workshops in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland. Further consultation is occurring with Resource Teachers Vision (RTVs) and adult users who could not be present at the workshops. The decision whether or not to adopt the code will be taken by the Braille Authority of New Zealand at its 29 November meeting.
The new code is easier to teach, learn and produce. There are very few changes to everyday braille, but there will be a new maths code to master. If UEB is introduced, it will be three or four years before it is integrated into New Zealand braille teaching and production.