The digital recordings are made at the recording studios of Radio Cherwell, the Oxford hospitals’ radio station, based on the Churchill Hospital site.

For further details and information about this and how to receive the OXTALK weekly newspaper recording for people with a visual impairment please send an email to mail@oxtalk.org.uk.

PRESENTATION BY MEG JONES, SENSORY IMPAIRMENT TEAM, OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL, TO OXTALK AT THEIR AGM HELD ON 27 OCTOBER 2011

Meg explained that the Visual Impairment Team is part of the Sensory Impairment Team which covers hearing impairment and dual sensory impairment. They work under the National Assistance Act 1948, NHS and Community Care Act 1990, Children’s Act 1989 and 2005, Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 and Disability Discrimination Act 1995. They deal with rehabilitation – they don’t provide care.

Referrals come in from anywhere, either by letter, form or telephone. The client must be aware of the referral before it can be taken and with each referral they try to make telephone contact to establish the client’s difficulties so that they can prioritise need and place them on their waiting list. They work in conjunction with OAB (the Oxfordshire Association for the Blind) and will do Home Safety Checks on clients, which is a quick safety visit whilst they are on the waiting list. The team is very small and operates county-wide for clients “from cradle to grave”.There are six Rehabilitation Officers, with one support worker. Once a client is allocated to an individual worker, that worker will arrange an appointment in the home and carry out a thorough and detailed assessment under the categories listed and will work with the client until all presenting difficulties have been attended to. They will also issue appropriate equipment under Fair Access to Care Services Policy and Eligibility for Adult Care Services.

They provide support, rehabilitation and enablement: they are not care providers; they promote independence. The list of assessment includes:

Living:  cooking, food preparation, pouring, cooker controls, telling the time, using the telephone, contrast, finding things in cupboards.

Reading: Braille, large print, Moon (the team do not teach this but can assist and signpost). There are some electronic reading devices and sometimes funding is available: it may be possible for clients to borrow equipment from OAB. In Oxford City clients can have volunteers come out to help with such things as reading. Then there are talking books and newspapers, with free ones supplied by Calibre, the library and other suppliers. Kindles are becoming useful.

Mobility: Meg stressed that no-one has to have a white stick: the team talk through various options with clients. The team assess how fit clients are to do whatever they want to do: manage kerbs/pavements; cope with traffic, travel on buses and trains, negotiate speed and distance of vehicles, avoid street furniture such as lampposts, etc.

The Hearing Impairment side of the team are trained social workers and use British Sign Language. They have a new member of the team who works with people with dual sensory loss.

Other help:  The team can help people fill in forms, apply for benefits, make appeals, etc. A Disability Living Allowance is available for those under 65 who have profound visual impairment; for those over 65 the relevant benefit is the Attendance Allowance – one rate for those who need support during the day and a higher rate for those needing a lot of support at night (for example with special equipment, for turning, etc). Anyone registered as visually impaired qualifies for disability parking.

The team cannot influence housing applications but can write supporting letters; each Council has its own system.

Anyone can be referred to the Visual Impairment Team who has a visual impairment that glasses will not fix: most referrals come from the Eye Hospital, though GPs and some other professionals also refer patients. The duty desk is manned every morning. The current waiting list is six weeks for non-urgent matters, but visits are made within a week to people with sudden loss of sight.

Questions

Following her very full presentation, Meg invited questions from the audience. These included one about the integration of visually impaired children in schools, where considerable help is available.

Another asked if the team could act as a pressure group to help people with difficulties in using key pads in supermarkets: the answer is that they cannot act as a pressure group but they can educate. (In this situation, for instance, banks can set up a “chip and sign” system.) A lot of education work had been carried out in Oxford to ensure that shops etc. did not discriminate against or be difficult with people with a disability, but in case of problems visually impaired people were encouraged to go to Customer Services and ask for a member of staff to escort them around the store and help them at the checkout, etc.

Meg was able to report that injections of a new drug, Lucentis, although not curing macular degeneration, could slow it down. Lots of research was going on in the area of retinitis pigmentosa and diabetic retinopathy.

Contact details

The telephone number for the Visual Impairment Team is 0845 050 7666: the Hearing Impairment Team is on the same number. Website address is: access@oxfordshire.gov.uk/accessteam

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

It is pleasing to see many OXTALK listeners, volunteers, and friends attending this meeting. I am pleased to welcome Patrick and Dione Lawrence, Patrick as many of you know is a past Chairman. Neil Stockton, the Chairman of Radio Cherwell has joined us. I will take this opportunity to say thank you yet again Neil for the generous use you allow OXTALK to make of the Radio Cherwell Studios. Richard Leader has joined us this evening from the Witney TN and Barry Reeves and Kay Sentance from ARTWASH. Barry will be updating the meeting about the progress ARTWASH has made during the year.

PROGRESS is THE word I attach to OXTALK for this past year. On Tuesday 7 June OXTALK went totally digital. A momentous event which had been planned and prepared for, for many, many months. A group of OXTALK volunteers became digital trainers, Anne Ambler, Mandy Wood, Lesley Court, Rosemary Shurgold, Christine Hockley, Ray Anson Colin Taylor, Trevor Miles and myself. This group of volunteers visited all the listeners and continue to visit the new referrals, so that every listener became the owner of a Sound Orb player and knew how to use the machine with the flash drives that they now receive on a weekly basis. My thanks to every one of these volunteers who spent on average an hour a visit with each listener. The positive outcome of this change, from cassettes to digital news recordings, is as listeners tell us ‘a much improved weekly news recording with high quality sound and clarity.’ Hearing this helps make all the time spent and the frustrations of the TOs, who couldn’t wait for the changeover to take place, fade into oblivion. Will flash drives be the preferred way of recording the talking news for the next 30 plus years?

To accompany the change in service delivery it was necessary to produce a new OXTALK leaflet which informs the public about how OXTALK now produces the talking newspaper service, with information and contact details for applying to receive the weekly talking news or to be a volunteer. I am very grateful to Trevor Miles, who has a son, who lives next to a publisher, David Baker, of  Magenta Marketing Services, who generously offered to sponsor and support OXTALK by printing them for us. This generosity is very much appreciated. I also appreciate the time given by Ray, Mandy and Colin in producing the new layout and text for the leaflet and Hilary Beaton who was OXTALK’s ‘official’ photographer. I had hoped to be launching this new leaflet this evening but that pleasure will have to wait to a later date.

OXTALK did not need to fundraise during this year as we had sufficient funds in the accounts to pay for the Sound Orbs and the flash drives. Some listeners did make a donation towards the cost of their Sound Orb.

New listeners are referred to OXTALK, in the main, from the Sensory Impairment Team. Listeners do refer new listeners and people can read about OXTALK on the website, which is managed for us by Hilary Beaton.

OXTALK has maintained its links with the other County TN through the bi-yearly meetings, which have proved to be useful.

During the year OXTALK was approached by the Church of England’s Editor of their talking newspaper ‘DOOR’ for advice on setting up an Oxford TN services for their members. Oxfordshire Association for the Blind have asked us to consider extending OXTALK’s service to visually impaired people living in Thame. The Committee consider this to be feasible and so this could be a future development. By promoting OXTALK the service is being used more and more by statutory and voluntary organisations to inform the listeners of changes in legislation and service provision. The Oxford GPs involved in the NHS changes in health provision for the future are interested in using the talking newspaper as a means of informing their visual impaired patients, who may not know of the changes if they do not attend the public meetings.

Tomorrow Mandy, Margaret and I will be meeting to organise next year’s rotas. I am pleased to say there will be only a few changes in 2012. One name which will not appear on next year’s lists will be that of Adeline Stunnell. Adeline has been a Copier for exactly 20 years and so we say a very grateful ‘thank you to Adeline’ for all her years of very reliable service. Dave Holmes, a listener representative on the Committee is resigning from the Committee, thank you Dave for your support through-out the year.

Through-out the year I have received much appreciated support from Committee Members, especially when I was out of action when Anne Ambler and Lesley Court stepped in and did the work I otherwise should have done. Thank you to both of you and all the members of the Committee.

This coming year should be one of fewer changes and more a case of settling into the new regime. I wish OXTALK another successful year.   Thank you.

Margaret A Simpson CHAIR of OXTALK                       27October 2011

It is the time of year when I ask you to think ahead to the next year. To help us plan the rotas, which result in the weekly talking newspaper, I have sent you all the ‘Availibilty Sheet for 2012′, which I ask you you to complete and return.

2011 has been a memorable year with the permanent transfer, at the beginning of June, from cassette to flash drive. Listeners confirm that there is a big improvement in quality which is rewarding.

Listeners appreciate the clear, steady delivery of the news items,especially those listeners who have a hearing impairment as well as a visual impairment – reading neither too fast nor too slow.

It is inevitable, there are some volunteers retiring, mainly from the copying teams, but the stability of all teams through-out this year has been pleasing. The retiring copiers will be missed but because the copying process is now much quicker the copying teams will function with 3 members in future.

The Autumn Meeting which includes the AGM, will be held on Thursday 27 October 2011 at 7pm. The venue is Barton Community Centre where there is plenty of free car parking. I am pleased to be able to tell you that following the AGM and refreshments Meg Jones, Senior Social Worker with the Oxfordshire Sensory Impairment Team will be our guest speaker. Following Meg’s presentation there will be a listener led discussion about the sevices for people with a visual impairment – are we, are the Sensory Team, offering a service which meets the needs of the users?

I do hope you will be attending the Autumn Meeting, please let me know. If you are, will you be able to offer a listener a lift to and from the meeting, if the need arises?

2011 has been a satisfying and positive year for OXTALK – I do hope you agree.

Thank you for your continuing support of OXTALK.

Good wishes.

Margaret
CHAIR – OXTALK

Anyone wanting a visiting speaker should contact Anne on 01865 872628.

Most organisations give a small donation, which helps our funds.

In June two of us teamed up with Oxfordshire Association for the Blind at Thame Library to talk to the public and to promote both their and our services.