Health and Soical Care Level 3

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How others think and feel about individuals who have sensory loss (attitudes) can be disabling if they are based on assumptions or generalisations. All of these attitudes can be disabling as they can affect an individual’s:

- Confidence

- Self-esteem

- Mental health and well-being

- Expectations of themselves and others

- Trust in others

- Wishes for the future

(1.4)

The first step in overcoming limiting beliefs is to identify those beliefs. The beliefs that you hold are either empowering, or, dis-empowering. It should never be a question of which belief is right versus wrong. Your mindset and your ways of thinking either help you, or hold you back. Your beliefs become your reality. Whether your belief is a way of thinking that will help you achieve your goals or not, you will always find evidence to support your belief, and to have it become your reality. Overcoming limiting beliefs requires that you identify all of them first! As stated in 1.3 disabling attitudes and beliefs can have a significant impact on individuals who have sensory loss. Overcoming disabling attitudes and beliefs involves:

- Getting to know individuals who have sensory loss

- Listening to the views of individuals who have sensory loss

- Respecting that all individuals who have a sensory loss are unique

- Seeing an individual who has a sensory loss first and foremost as a person

- Being open about what individuals who have a sensory loss can do

- Not making assumptions about individuals who have sensory loss

- Not engaging in discriminatory behavior

- Not engaging in disabling attitudes

- Not engaging in disabling beliefs

- Not seeing individuals who have sensory loss as all the same

You can overcome disabling attitudes and beliefs in sensory loss by challenging discrimination immediately. You can also get involved in social activities that promote positive attitudes.

Disabling attitudes – Steps to be taken: Try and make a person see, by explaining verbally and showing them how an individual with a sensory loss will be affected in many ways in their normal day-to-day life, compared to how they live day-to-day with their senses. Look at it from their point of view and try to understand, why they have this attitude towards individuals with sensory loss.

Disabling beliefs – Steps to be taken: From own beliefs and experience, people with beliefs often seem to treat individuals with sensory loss with a lot more respect, patience and time than they would a person who has all their senses. This is because, they believe they shouldn’t be discriminated and should be treated the same as anybody else but to help them so they can also learn and benefit the same as everybody else.

(Task 2)

(2.1)

Individuals with sensory loss will communicate with others in different ways and will very often use more than one method to do so.

- Sight loss:

- Impaired vision also affects the ability to communicate. We look for visual clues during conversation. Some are: Facial cues indicating mood or emotion, hand gestures indicating size or direction. Turn-taking cues, such as raised eyebrows. Feedback, such as head nodding. Those with poor vision may be lost or misunderstand these types of non-verbal messages. There are some simple things that you can do when talking to someone who has visual impairments: Identify yourself when approaching. Describe, with words, instead of gestures. Increase the room lighting; make sure the light is not behind you. Identify yourself and make it clear that you are speaking to them and not someone else, they can’t read your body language so you need to be clear about your meanings and directions, a noisy environment can make it difficult for them to concentrate on your voice.

- Hearing loss:

- Individuals with hearing loss can use: Objects of reference, photographs, pictures and symbols, British sign language, Makaton, lip reading and interpreters. Be respectful when trying to get their attention example: use a light touch on the arm, if they lip read they need to see your face, you need to speak clearly at a normal pace and tone, you may need to be patient and repeat things.

- Deaf blindness:

- Individuals who have dual sensory loss can use: Manual alphabets, haptic communication, intervenors and communication guides. Some of the above plus you need to know the levels of deafness and blindness and their preferred method of communication. Someone who was born deafblind has special needs that cannot be met by services for people who are only deaf or only blind. They may have other physical and/or learning disabilities.

The following factors must also be considered when communicating with individuals who have sight loss, hearing loss and deaf blindness: Where communication takes place, ensuring the background noises are minimised which can result in more effective communication. The time available, so individuals do not feel rushed. Being aware of the messages you are giving to individual’s example: through your body language, you’re facial expressions and the tone of your voice.

(2.2)

People with sensory loss such as hearing or sight can benefit from different types of effective communication. For example, those with hearing loss may benefit from using sign language or pictures to communicate. Those with sight loss may benefit most from vocal communication. A person with hearing loss or sight loss needs to be respected as an individual, being treated like any other person, to promote their rights, example: their right to have an interpreter at health appointments, not being patronised or discriminated against because of their disability, being treated with dignity, people taking the time to get to know them and use their preferred method of communication, how this would make the individual feel, example: valued, increase their self-esteem, self-confidence, feel empowered, that they have