Emotional support and counselling for people with visual impairment: Quantitative findings from a mixed methods pilot study

Abstract

Aims: This paper reports on mainly quantitative findings from a mixed methods evaluation of a new model of emotional support and counselling for people with moderate visual impairment. Method: The CORE Outcome Measure was completed with service users at baseline and post-intervention to assess the impact of the new service on psychological wellbeing and social functioning. Their perceived needs and expectations of the service were also explored. Results: Of the 35 individuals providing data at each assessment time, mean item scores on the CORE fell significantly (p B.001), taking the sample from within a clinical population before therapy, to a mean score below this following therapy. A more positive outlook accompanied this improvement in functioning. Discussion: Findings from the study augment the growing evidence that emotional support and counselling services can play an important role alongside and within related vision services. Implications for practice: The study indicates that therapeutic input for the visually impaired client group may need to target both wellbeing (feelings about oneself and the future) and problems (depression, anxiety, physical health, and trauma). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that a dual model of emotional support and counselling offers considerable benefit for people with visual impairment.

Psychosocial interventions to improve mental health in adults with vision impairment: systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…The total period of follow‐up ranged from 1 month to 11 months, drop‐out ranged from 0% to 57%, mean age ranged from 38 years to 84 years and 10% to 79% were female ( Table ). In almost half of the studies the participants were diagnosed with age‐related macular degeneration (AMD), in six studies patients had vision impairment (indicating that participants had different eye conditions), in two studies patients were blind, in two studies patients were diagnosed with glaucoma, in two studies patients had diabetic retinopathy, and in one study patients were diagnosed with Stargardt's disease. Half of the studies were performed in the Unites States of America, one in Australia, seven in Europe (i.e.…”

“…Half of the studies were performed in the Unites States of America, one in Australia, seven in Europe (i.e. United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands) and three in Asian countries (i.e. Iran, Chinaand Japan).…”

“…These subscales show good reliability and validity in a visually impaired sample . In addition, several mental health subscales of health‐related quality of life questionnaires were used: two studies used the ‘mental health’ subscale of the Short Form Health Survey (SF‐36) and the Research and Development scale (RAND‐36), which are well‐established and reliable tools in adults in general, one studyused the ‘negative well‐being’ subscale of the Well‐Being Questionnaire (WB‐Q), which shows good reliability and validity in people with macular disease, and another study used the ‘psychosocial well‐being’ subscale of the CORE outcome measure, which shows good reliability and internal validity in the general population . The Symptom Checklist (SCL) was used by one study and the Kurzfragebogen zur Aktuellen Beanspruchung (KAB) by another study to determine psychological problems/strain.…”

Effectiveness of school‐based humanistic counselling for psychological distress in young people: Pilot randomized controlled trial with follow‐up in an ethnically diverse sample

“…This was often as a consequence of having had disruptions to their education as recent asylum seekers/ refugee families, with English as an additional language. On discussion with the schools, and in line with other research where a high proportion of participants have had reading difficulties (e.g., Barr, Hodge, Leeven, Bowen, & Knox, 2012;Miranda et al, 2006), it was decided the measures should be administered orally by the testers, with the testers recording participants' responses. For the purpose of consistency, this testing method was then adopted for all participants across all sites.…”

Exploring the role of an emotional support and counselling service for people with visual impairments

“…Although no causal relationship can be inferred from these data between the improvements in CORE scores and the counselling intervention, they do suggest that the improvements were related to the counselling received. These findings are discussed in more detail elsewhere (Barr et al, 2012). In the remainder of this article we draw on findings from the qualitative component of the study to develop a more in-depth understanding of some of the experiences underlying the quantitative findings, and to explore some of the ways in which the ESaC services may have helped to address the emotional support needs of users of the low vision services.…”