ERIC Number: ED169240
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1977
Pages: 119
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
A Project to Demonstrate the Role of a Rehabilitation Team in Providing Comprehensive Services to the Older Legally Blind on an Itinerant Basis. Final Report.
Lobuts, Joseph E.
Using an itinerant team of professional rehabilitation personnel, a three-year project was conducted in West Virginia to provide the older blind in three counties (Cabell, Wood, Kanawha) with comprehensive rehabilitation services in both the home and community so that they could become as independent as possible, and, if possible, obtain gainful employment. The first nine months of the project dealt primarily with development of referral sources and inservice staff training. Out of the 408 referrals provided, 133 cases received services. Fifty-nine clients were trained in mobility skills, ninety-seven chose to receive instruction in homemaking, and 114 participated in communications training. Clients were referred on an individual basis to community resources such as the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Goodwill Industries Homebound Program, Library Commission, and community schools. A consumer evaluation of the project showed that the clients were satisfied overall, and a majority of the professionals who had originally referred participants assessed the program favorably. It was disappointing that 128 individuals contacted refused services, and that ophthalmologists provided so few referrals. Recommendations were made for future services, including (1) hiring a third party to evaluate the program's effectiveness, (2) expanding the program to include the functionally blind, and (3) expanding and publicizing the loan of talking cassette books by libraries. (ELG)
Descriptors: Blindness, Communication Skills, Community Resources, Daily Living Skills, Failure, Home Economics, Human Services, Itinerant Teachers, Literature Reviews, Older Adults, Professional Personnel, Program Descriptions, Program Development, Program Evaluation, Referral, Rehabilitation, Success, Travel Training, Visually Handicapped Mobility
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Rehabilitation Services Administration (DHEW), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: West Virginia State Dept. of Education, Charleston. Div. of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Parts of appendix marginally legible