Sheffield charity for visually impaired people to change services in response to coronavirus

As the situation unfolds, the charity – including its Rotherham Sight and Sound division – is developing plans to continue providing support while following Government directives.

The charity will continue to offer support via its Community Advice Officers, whose main responsibility it is to visit the visually impaired people in their own homes.

For now they will be working as usual, but providing the service by telephone.

They will continue to provide a full needs assessment for newly registered blind or partially sighted people, while offering help to existing clients who require assistance with a variety of issues.

The organisation has said it is uncertain how long these measures may be in place for, and that it may need to restrict operations further. Regular updates will be provided.

With effect from March 23, group activities at the Mappin Street and Ship Hill centres will be suspended. The fortnightly ‘drop-in’ service for advice will continue to operate.

General manager Steve Hambleton said: “We are very aware that this is a challenging time for many people and we are naturally concerned for our clients with sight and/or hearing loss in the Sheffield City Region who will obviously face difficulties.

“For any clients who are self-isolating, regardless of whether or not they regularly attend our Activities Centre, we will be looking to support them in their self-isolation by offering a home delivery service from our centre kitchen in Sheffield.

“We will be working up the procedures for this over the next few days, but we are asking clients who might not have any family, friends or neighbours who can do their shopping for you, then please just give us a call to register your interest.

“We are of course concerned for many of our older clients who have the potential to be isolated anyway, and want to do all we can to support them.

“We already provide a service here where we invite people who live on their own to come out with us, so for now, this will be extended to those who normally visit us weekly, who have now been asked to self-isolate.

“We will keep in touch if we need to make changes to our plans, but for now we aim to do all we can to provide ongoing support for our clients.”

Clients or members of their families are still able to call SRSB on 0114 272 2757 or RSS on 0170 972 2420.

For more details and updates visit www.srsb.org.uk or contact [email protected] via email.