A counselling service originated for people with vision loss to help them get rid of anxiety.
Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash
The blind and partially sighted people can dial a specific helpline to counsel their psychological problems for keeping a good mental state during the lockdown.
Over 121,000 blind and partially sighted people who live in Wales can use an emergency mental health helpline launched by Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to consult the struggles they are facing that caused by Covid-19.
Tina Doyle, the counsellor of RNIB said: “Over the last few months RNIB has spoken to hundreds of blind and partially sighted people who have been experiencing issues as a result of this pandemic. Many are feeling lonely, vulnerable, isolated and anxious. These are all emotions that blind and partially people regularly experience anyway, which have now been amplified by the pandemic.”
The vast majority of blind and partially sighted people have faced the issues caused by pandemic like can’t live with their families, hard to keeping social distance and can’t find people to talk about their anxiety.
“I feel I am being kind of excluded from the world at the moment,” said Rachel Jones, who was born with retinitis pigmentosa which makes her severely sight impaired. “I also have chronic asthma and I rely on my family to do things like driving me around, but we had to go into lockdown, I lost my support network.”
Not only the lockdown policy but also the social distance made Rachel felt frustrated. “There was social distance everywhere, for me it was so difficult to keep social distance because I can’t see people around me so I don’t know if I’m six foot away from somebody. It is difficult to find my way around safely, I’ve been shouted at by shocked people when I going up the wrong way.”
“I think talking about mental health a big step towards finding solutions and taking care of yourself. I would say self-care is not self-indulgence, it’s self-preservation and that’s really important,” Rachel added. People with disabilities also deserve the chances to talk about their mental health in this special period.
Different from normal counselling service which has been launched for six sessions and has a small waiting list, the Emergency Mental Health Session will provide service in 24 hours.
The counsellors of this session are BACP-trained and had sight loss experience. In the one-hour telephone consultation, people can express their mental problems and receive professional guidance about how to deal with these negative emotions.
The Emergency Emergency Mental Health Sessions will be available until June 2021, people can access the service by contacting on 0303 123 9999 and Visit the website to find out more information.