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ABOUT US
How does Sierra
Services for the Blind differ from other organizations for the blind, and
from other organizations serving the disabled community?
First, blindness is a unique disability. Restoration or improvement of vision
by modern surgery—corneal transplants, lens replacement, and laser
surgery—is common. However, for other causes of blindness, beyond
magnification in the early stages, there is no mechanical fix. Blind
individuals cannot use a prosthesis, a wheelchair,
have a car modified to accommodate a need, or use any of the other devices
used to accommodate to a disability as described in the Americans with
Disabilities Act. In fact, the ADA deals separately with blindness and can
only require, "reasonable accommodation."
This is why in larger population centers there is a separate agency just for
the blind, an agency which does not claim or attempt to serve all
disabilities. National organizations such as Lighthouse for the Blind, the
Braille Institute, the National Federation of the Blind, and the American
Federation of the Blind operate these centers. The few organizations
operating dog training centers, similarly operate in
major population centers. A federal study done by the New York office of the
Lighthouse for the Blind found Sierra Services for the Blind is the only
agency in the nation serving exclusively a rural community. No other agency
offers the extensive variety of transportation, classroom, and in home
services provided by Sierra Services for the Blind.
Second, the nature of the community and the needs of a predominately elderly
clientele make it impractical to use service techniques used for younger
blind in higher density communities. Center based programs found in cities
are based on attending a class for a finite period of time where the clients
are exposed to a curriculum based on necessary skills to accommodate to
blindness in the cities is offered.
In a rural community with a large percentage of retirees, the needs of
individual clients vary widely. They are not suddenly blind. They require an
increasing amount of training and assistance as they lose vision gradually.
Center-based programs do not work because the required transportation system
is missing. And simply stated, you don't have to teach them how to cook for
themselves, just how to do it a new way. For residents of a rural community,
the loss of the ability to drive for an individual living alone can be a devastating
event, which for the blind requires immediate support. This is especially
true when both members of a household lose this ability. Sierra Services for
the Blind provides necessary transportation to medical appointments,
including necessary escorted transportation to a pharmacy for required
prescriptions.
Departments of Rehabilitation are geared to retrain toward employment. Except
for the blind, they are successful. Blind seniors are usually not able to
find employment; they are simply trying to forestall institutionalization at
public expense. Although they represent 5% of the senior population, they are
48% of those in long term care institutions.
Third, seniors tend to congregate in rural communities for three reasons.
They retire there for a more relaxed lifestyle. Some arrive with their
children when the children retire and bring them along. Or, they are remain behind when the younger population has to leave the
area to find work. As a group, seniors in rural communities do not seek
services from program-based agencies since these static programs do not fit
their ever changing individual needs. Simply, it is for Sierra Services for
the Blind to fill these needs as they occur.
The financial cost to the public for the institutionalization of senior blind
individuals is measured in billions of dollars and will grow dramatically as
society ages. As is often the case in national trends, this problem rises in
rural America first. When it comes home to the cities, it is often too late
to stem the tide, and far too expensive to accommodate. Further, this does
not address the cost in human terms. This elderly generation wants a hand,
not a handout. What we do now not only effects
seniors left in institutional darkness, it effects younger generations knowing
it is likely to be their future as they age.
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