Making a note of your daily mood, or several times a day, can help you track how you’re feeling. Taking notice in this way can help you spot the early warning signs, and may help you to find strategies for alleviating negative feelings or situations.
There are lots of apps online, as well as pretty and stylish paper mood diaries, or you can create your own or print a free template.
After receiving a diagnosis and experiencing major vision loss, you can enter a grieving process. Give yourself the time and space to feel the denial, anger, sadness, bargaining and acceptance. See our page on wellbeing for tips, and practice mindfulness or meditation if you find that helpful to accept your emotions rather than trying to change or fix them.
Find the professionals that will support you on a regular basis. This could include your optometrist or ophthalmologist, counsellor, peer support group, emotional and practical support from friends and family, neighbours or charities. It could also include a faith group, or classes such as braille, orientation and mobility.
These people will become Team You. It is important to build a support network to help you navigate the transition and ensure you that you don’t have to go through blindness or sight loss alone.
Losing your vision can involve making a lot of changes to your life, which can be overwhelming and stressful. See our pages on Stress, Mental Health and Wellbeing for tips on how to relax, and strageties for improving your mental and emotional wellbeing.
Make adjustments to your life and the way you do things to make it easier for you to do them independently. This may include:
Repairing trip hazards such as broken paths or loose carpets
Installing an entry phone system so you can find who out who is at the door before answering
Increasing the amount of light around front and backdoors, and inside the home
Changing the colour scheme in your home so you can tell the difference between rooms
Non-slip flooring in bathroom and kitchen
Making sure you have a continuous handrail on either side of the staircase to hold on to
You can contact your local council social services department and ask them to arrange for a social worker to assess your needs. You may qualify for a Disabled Facilities Grant to help you pay for any home adaptations.
There are also home improvement agencies which can help you decide what changes you may benefit from, help to arrange for money to pay for work and then organise the work. Your local council social services department should be able to let you know if there is a home improvement agency in your area.
Make the most of your leisure time by continuing with your hobbies and interests, or beginning new ones. There are often services or support to help you. RNIB has lots of information on the different sorts of leisure activities you can enjoy and how to get started.
There are loads of apps on the market to support people who are blind or partially sighted. Ask your optometrist or peer support group if they can reccomend any. For starters:
If you are finding that sight loss is making your job difficult, you may find it helpful to receive some help or adjustments.
Make a note of all the tasks required in your job role and whether you are able to do them under current conditions, or if not whether you could with reasonable adjustments.
Discuss your situation with your employer, and ask for a workplace assessment from OH if you think it would be helpful for any reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act. During the discussion you could cover:
Reasonable adjustments that your employer might make could include:
