[nfb-talk] UK Vision Strategy

[T. Joseph Carter]

Looking at it from the medical perspective (as David points out they do),
you have to consider primary, secondary, and tertiary intervention
strategies.  These are employed in both physical and mental health
professions, and can just as well be applied to social or other models.

The most effective interventions are primary: Avoiding the problem
outright.  This means looking for risk factors and mitigating the effects
those factors can have, where possible.  These interventions are the most
effective, by definition, because you can seek to avoid the problem from
manifesting in the first place.

If primary intervention was not applied or was unsuccessful, secondary
intervention is employed to reduce the effect of the problem.  That is,
let's keep it from getting worse while we try to see if we can somehow
make it better.

Tertiary intervention is deemed least effective, because there's very
little you can do once the problem has manifest except try to cope with it
as best as you can.

Now, if you consider that the "problem" for these guys is vision loss, it
makes sense.  They first seek to prevent it, second attempt to maintain or
improve vision as best they can, and then third endeavor to find ways to
cope with the problem.  Of course, it makes sense only in the scope of
ways to solve the problem they have defined: vision loss.  While certainly
not a bad problem to try to solve (being blind just sucks sometimes, after
all), their mistake is in making it THE problem to solve.


A better problem is:  How do you prevent people who do lose vision from
becoming unreasonably dependent on others and society in general?  The
same problem solving model applies.

Primary intervention: For those who have not lost their vision, raise
awareness of eye health.  For those at risk, try to mitigate risk factors.

Secondary intervention: So you're losing, have lost, or never had vision.
If it can be reasonably maintained, steps should be taken.  Whether it can
be maintained or not, training should begin in the skills of blindness,
long before you're in that position that you become dependent upon others.

Tertiary intervention: NFB training center.  *grin*

I realize I'm preaching to the choir a bit here.  Still, the approach to
problem-solving they've taken works.  They just decided to solve the wrong
problem.

On Wed, Dec 26, 2007 at 05:14:33PM +0000, helene ryles wrote:
> I know this is happening in England, not USA but it is something that
> I'm feeling concerned about as suport for independant living only comes
> 3rd when it should be the top priority. They seem to be linking 
> Blindness with depression. If that gets out publicly then we stand even
> less chance of getting work. Well please read it and let me know what
> you think.