Charity praises Bradford scheme (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Charity praises Bradford scheme

9:10pm Wednesday 10th December 2008

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

A Bradford Council scheme is among a handful in the UK to be praised by a charity for its work in offering eye care to people in black and minority ethnic communities.

The Council’s Sensory Needs Service holds regular information days for ten to 15 people who are newly registered as visually impaired or waiting for assessment.

The programme includes talks, benefits advice, workshops, demonstrations of equipment, one-to-one assessments and a chance to share experiences with other visually-impaired people.

Sight-loss charity, the Thomas Pocklington Trust has now included the Bradford service in its latest “good practice” guide.

The Sensory Needs Service is based at the Morley Street Resource Centre in Bradford.

Its manager Alec Porter said: “Obviously up and down the country there are lots of places with large black and minority ethnic communities and Bradford is one.

“Quite a lot of those people are visually impaired. I think it’s good that we’ve been named as one of the 13, but it’s where we should be according to Bradford’s demographic.

“There isn’t a particular programme for minority ethnic people, what works is that we are an integrated service and have sustainable projects.

“And we have staff who are from minority ethnic backgrounds who are visually impaired too so the staff and service users can really relate to each other.”

According to the charity, the lack of long-term, sustainable projects in the UK means that people in black and minority ethnic communities, who are the most likely to suffer from sight loss, are still the least likely to receive the necessary care.

People of African-Caribbean descent are eight times more likely to develop glaucoma, a major cause of irreversible blindness, than the general population while diabetes, which also causes blindness, is also more prevalent among people from minority ethnic groups.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)