Date: 08/19/2015
Final
Senior Services for the Blind
VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION SERVICES FOR THE BLIND
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02:15 PM -- Senior Services for the Blind
Ms. Duncan Larsen, Director of Senior Services at the Colorado Center for the Blind, spoke about her history working with blind individuals in Nebraska and Colorado. Ms. Larsen discussed her experience working in the Nebraska unit dedicated to providing vocational rehabilitation services for the blind. Ms. Larsen received training from the agency dedicated to blindness skills prior to her teaching home management for the blind. Ms. Larsen also discussed the evolution of the Nebraska model from the separate unit to a completely separate agency dedicated to providing vocational rehabilitation services to the blind, known as the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Ms. Larsen spoke about how this is very different and provides several advantages over the Colorado model of having a combined vocational rehabilitation agency where counselors are not required to receive training specific to blind individuals.
Ms. Larsen continued with an overview of the services that are available to older blind individuals. Ms. Larsen spoke about how seniors who lose their sight later in life can often feel a sense of isolation, helplessness, and depression, and have a lack of positive blind role models, and how the Colorado Center for the Blind works to change this. The center provides training to seniors so they can continue to live independently, including traveling independently, reading braille, cooking, using technology, and using other blindness skills. The Colorado Center for the Blind also provides blind seniors and their family members with support groups and educational events. Ms. Larsen also spoke about the desire of many blind seniors to continue working, including part-time or volunteer work, and the importance of providing vocational rehabilitation services to these individuals. Technology training is especially important for these individuals.
Ms. Larsen spoke about the feedback she has received from the blind seniors she works with, including the importance of blindness skills training, counselors needing internal training on attitudes towards blindness, and the need for good transportation services, especially in rural areas of the state.
Ms. Larsen continued to speak about the need for more services for older blind individuals and provided some statistics on the projected growth of this segment of the population. Due to age related vision loss, as the general population ages, so does the incidence of blindness. According to the Area Agency on Aging, 25 percent of seniors age 60 or older experience vision loss.
Ms. Larsen spoke about how the Colorado Center for the Blind provides services to blind seniors through grant from the Older Individuals who are Blind (OIB) program, which is funded through the US Department of Education Rehabilitation Services Administration, and other grants and contributions. Ms. Larsen continued to discuss the funding provided through Title 7 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and how grants are made to states to support services for individuals who are age 55 and older who have independent living goals. The OIB program is administered through the Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Ms. Larsen discussed the need for more funding to provide training and other services for older blind individuals across the state and the need to do more outreach to blind seniors to inform them about what services are available. Ms. Larsen discussed the advantages of providing services to the blind through a separate state agency.