Thanks very much everyone for coming along today. Very, very excited to have so many people in the room. As I said just a minute ago, we are being joined by some people on Zoom. So the first piece of housekeeping is when we've got the event going on, people are speaking asking questions, can we just keep the background noise as close to zero as possible, we've got one microphone in the middle of the room, which is hopefully that all the noise for everything that's going on today. For obvious reasons, we didn't want to be hanging around microphones and worried about the sanitizing hygiene thing. So please bear that in mind. Those of you that have joined us face to face, there will be a chance afterwards for a natural event unwanted stuff. So please bear with us till we get to that heartwell points. Right. So welcome. My name is Matt Cliff. For those who don't know, I'm the engagement of the trust. Part of my job is to support Sight Loss Councils in the region. Today's event is a Merseyside Sight Loss Council event. So I'm not going to talk too much about that. They only set the scene for that in a second. few other bits of housekeeping can go straight to do housekeeping. You're not doing much housekeeping, you know how to do it when you talk to our computer. So in the case of emergency evacuation, we've got sighted guides and volunteers that will show everyone where the nearest accesses will have the meeting point outside. So please, you know, stay calm, be careful. Don't worry, those of you joining us from Zoom. Actually, I keep talking to the laptop, those who joined us from Zoom. Obviously, if we do have to merge evacuated, please don't panic. My colleague Iain will be there to keep you nice and calm. I'm sure you will all be fine in terms of sanitising. We have got hand sanitiser on every table. There are also antibacterial wipes. If you want to clean down the tables, we'll charge any services or equipment, so you feel comfortable. Please respect everyone's decision whether or not to wear a face mask and also consider social distancing and things like that. It's a non smoking site. If anyone wants to go with smoke, please go off site. And I think that is just for housekeeping. So without further ado, I will hand you over to Naomi, one of our Sight Loss Council members is going to say a bit more about today's events. So thank you very much.

Hello, everyone. And thank you for coming to today's event, which is being called life after lockdown. My name is Naomi Ditchfield. And I'm a member of Merseyside Sight Loss Council. And I think we all know how difficult it's been for us in the last 18 months during lockdown and the pandemic. And just like to get people's ideas of how they managed to cope during this time.

being visually impaired, we know that difficult challenge and additional hurdles we've got to overcome during lockdown. And I'm sure one of one of you. One of the things that we found was trying to get our shopping online. So we were able to collaborate with other sight loss charities and get priority slots in various supermarket some of which are another another hurdle that we found during lockdown with social distancing. As I'm sure you're all aware, it's not just us that have problems with this, but our guide dogs and people wanting to come up and help us or not help us as the case might be. And I'm sure most of us have found that very stressful. And you know, making us wary of other people. I know I haven't found that very challenge challenging. So you just want to get your ideas on how you've managed to date at this event. The other issues are when I've got up there. I've got three speakers with us today.

So they will be given various

conversations about

what we're doing. Right last chance. I'd like to say thank you for coming today. And I hope you enjoy it. Thank you very much

Good morning. My name is Frank McFarlane, and I am a member of the Sight Loss Council. It's not my job to steer us to the morning up to 12.30. After that, it's lunch and I take no responsibility. But I am on the pain of debt that we stick to time. In fact, it's worse than pain of death. So we do have to keep to time. It's my job, first of all, to introduce our three speakers. And our first speaker, each of them is going to speak for 10 minutes. And I'm going to repeat 10 minutes. If necessary. I'll give you a one minute warning. But please don't think I'm being rude. But as I say, I'm under orders. Our first speaker is Michael Crilley. Michael is director of social inclusion and participation at Merseycare, NHS Trust. And Michael, it's all yours. Right?

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon. Good morning, I nearly said Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. And hello, especially to people who are on Zoom. But I must say It's so lovely to be here in a room with real live people. It's particularly exciting, I feel as though interactions only happened on a screen such a long time. So it's fabulous, to be back of last people and to be here with you today. And as Frank said, I work for an organisation that some of you may know, it's Merseycare NHS Trust, which is predominantly known, I guess, as being the mental health trust in our part of the world. But also for the last few years, it's been the provider of community based physical health services. So things like district nursing, therapies, walking centers, podiatry, those kinds of things. So we're of trust, I guess that is, by and large, not like your typical NHS Trust, where everybody looks at one big shiny hospital, like all the hay down the way, you know, we're trust built to be in the community. And whilst we do have some hospital beds, the vast majority of our work goes on with people down our street round your way. We're a community based organisation. And the service that I'm here to talk to you about today is in my department, and I've got this type of social inclusion and participation. Nobody has a clue what it means. So I'm making it up as I go along. And it seems to work reasonably well. But the service I'm here to chat to you about today is something called the life rooms. I don't know whether many people have heard about the live rooms at all. No, no, there's one or two, that's, that's encouraging. And we're a service that was set up now, five years ago, may just gone. And it's an entirely non clinical service, which is a bit unusual in the NHS, you know, we're not doctors, we're not nurses, we're not therapists. We're a community based service that seeks to provide non clinical support. And the reason we do that is actually a vast amount of research and evidence shows that if we were to give people a much better start in life, wraparound the right kind of support around housing, managing of money, access to education, and tackling social isolation. If we were to really address all of those effectively in the community where people live, well, guess what, there's less chance that they're going to end up sick and in a hospital. And that's probably no shock to anybody who's lived in our communities all their lives, we know the good community, good support, relationships are healthy, the kitten feeling well, and they're particularly protective back around to mental health and well being. One of the things we've discovered in mercy care is that for many of the people who fall into crisis, around their mental health, they come to mercy care services, they get really good clinical support, we hope not always, but we hope that by and large, they do. But actually the things that really stuck them moving to a life beyond a mental health diagnosis are often the practical things like the housing, the debt and access to jobs, the world can be a pretty unfair place. And if you are in any way perceived to be different from the norm, then actually you're already behind a huge swathes of the population in tackling some of those social issues. So what we decided to do five years ago, was a Take over a library. Now there's not many NHS services take over a library. But we took over the beautiful Walton library, just on the corner of rice lane and average afternoon, just just up from the old Walton General, you, those of you who know that neck of the woods. It was a Carnegie Library that was given to the city of Liverpool in 1917. And the library was under threat of closure and would have gone had we not stepped in. What Why did we step in? Well, I guess the reason we did is the people who accessed our crisis services were telling us that they were petrified that the threat of closure to the city's libraries, nine of the city's 19 libraries were slated to close. And for so many of our people, the library wasn't just about books, it was a real lifeline. It was a place they could go and see another living soul. It was a place where somebody might smile at the welcome though, it was a place where they could access free it if they had to do a daily job search or big benefit sanction. It was a really important part of community, and a place where people find humanity. And that was exactly what our service users were telling us they needed. They didn't just need clinical care, they needed help with life. So we took over that library, and we opened the very first life rooms, life rooms, Walton. And that took off so much people were walking through our doors in their droves not simply people with a diagnosed mental health condition. But more importantly, people who didn't have a mental health condition at all. The people who wanted to get into the driving seat have their own health and well being and stop their mental and latterly physical health deteriorating. So it was incredibly successful. A year after we opened, we were suddenly approached to open one in the town center itself bought. And a year after that, we were approached by Hugh Baird, further education college in the heart of Google Docs to open one there because they in particular, were grappling with mental health issues for their student population. And then a year after that, we opened to further satellites, we were two days a week in South with full Treatment Center in Gaston, and two days a week in the Playhouse Theatre in the in the city center. I love that the notion that I don't feel great about my mental health today, not that I'm going to go to the GP or a clinic, I'm going to go to the theater for my help and support. So we rapidly grew what we were doing. And by the time we went into the pandemic will 5000 people a month walking through our doors to seek support. And and that that shows you that what we have is something that people want and need. But what is it we actually do? Well, I guess there's three elements and aspects of things that we offer through our life room service. The first one is we offer a learning offer learning for wellbeing. So we have in excess of 100 courses, and learning opportunities or experiences that people can access for free, no matter where they come from. The courses that we would fill all day every day, if we if we code will be anxiety and self esteem and confidence. There is no end to the demand in our society for help with those issues in their in life, we run a whole host of courses that we co produce. In fact, all of our courses are co produced, I should say, by people with lived experience of a health condition, and people with expertise, whatever that may mean. So we have a range of focused mental health and physical health courses where we bring clinical colleagues together with people who have experienced the condition and they create that learning experience. So understanding and managing anxiety and depression, or living with COPD or diabetes, a whole range of these courses, and also huge creative offer. So all the time we're trying to help people move to a life beyond their diagnosis. You know, you may live with a health condition, but it shouldn't be the only thing that defines you. You have a right to a life that is rich, purposeful and of your own choosing. So we work with a huge range of cultural partners to develop opportunities around walking, gardening, singing, we've worked with the Liverpool Philharmonic for years now doing something called the super sing. So 30 people come together work with the Philharmonic conductor at the end of that there's a performance in the Philharmonic's musical. And then we don't want to create a mercy care community choir where people are defined by Mercy care and their help. We encourage them to form a choir out of that social grouping or join choirs that are out there. We developed a course with a little chef called fed up. Dirty affordable recipes often verify that using a slow cooker and we've got task goes to donate slow cookers and larger packs to the graduate. Because that was the barrier to taking learning into your life. Now we have a chef lecturer on the staff and we have courses like healthy takeaways, food and mood, a whole range, you name it, we'll have a practice day. And I know that there's colleagues who are here today who were talking about how we can work more closely around learning experiences for people with visual impairments. And I think we would recognize we would want to make our learning offer far more accessible to people who may be taking part in today's meeting. But it is good to know that there's one or two people who do come and see us regularly already. And the second bit that we do is these days, women lack social prescribing, it's called trying to connect people to community assets around the city. You know, we don't want you to be dependent on any one organisation, we want you to get back into life, and mix with people from all parts of our society. So we have 120 plus voluntary sector partners, who work with us on support around all sorts of practical issues are connecting people with the community assets in their parts of the world. And the final bit is a community in that sense. We're trying to park our little corpse around the Merseyside area in such a way as to be not something that dominates your community. But it's a little cog in a system that begins to help overclocks work in your local community, to help them to become happier and healthier. That's the sales pitch. All I need to say is life. rooms.org is our website. Everything we do is for free. The Council has just invested it was just announced on Friday, and quite a sizable investment of 1.8 million in expanding the light rooms offer across the city. So we anticipate being far more visible across the city, in libraries, a one stop shops and children's centres. And that will be rolling out in the coming year. I will shut up because I have gone way over my limit. But thank you for your time today.

Thank you. Welcome. Thanks. Thank you. second speaker who's also going to be restricted to in 10 minutes. Micheal Edwards who is the service manager, for Sightline. I hope I've got your title, right? Correct. Frank, go your sir. Okay. Good morning, everybody.

So I will definitely be under 10 minutes, Frank, you don't need to worry because I don't have much to say as Michael. Sorry. So I mean, Ian Edwards services manager at Sightline vision, and I'll explain a little bit more about what Sightline vision is in a moment. I also have my colleague sat over at the back, Becky, who is the communications coordinator at Sightline. And we both be very happy to talk to anybody after this event finishes. So what Sightline do it's quite simple, we don't do anywhere near as many different things as Michael, we provide a confidential telephone befriending service. So that's service been operating now since 2018. And it's a service that is exclusively for blind and partially sighted people. So we don't accept anybody onto our service, who doesn't have visual impairment. That's one of our prerequisites. And the service is exclusively delivered by a team of trained volunteers, all of whom have experience of sight loss themselves. That may be that they have a sight condition themselves, or they have a close family member, or they've worked in the sight loss sector. So there's a real empathy between our volunteers and our service users. And, like, Michael, we are fully funded, but not by the Council, but by the National Lottery. And that funding takes us well into 2024. So we're here to stay for a little while yet. And the organisation has actually been going since 2002, to set up by a lady from the Liverpool area called Eileen Green, who some of you may know. So Matt did ask me to say what the impact of the last 18 months. I'm sure we're all recognised being a very Typical 18 months, but in terms of Sightline, being relatively little impact on what we

do,

because as I said, Everything we do is over the telephone, it always has been. And it always will be. However, the pandemic caused the shutdown of huge amounts of services that blind, partially sighted people. And we saw the impact of that as people were referred into our service. We saw over 100% increase in 2020, we've continued to see a big increase in 2021. Indeed, we took on 20 new service users for one organisation last month, as they shut down their telephone support services that they put in place for the pandemic, and started to move back to face to face activities. But recognise that some of their service users still needed a telephone support service, which is what we provide. The other impact of COVID has been a difficulty in recruiting volunteers. Our volunteers are hugely valued within the organisation. Without them, we couldn't deliver our service. They are the people that make it happen. We are completely dependent upon them. And we found that getting volunteers throughout pandemic has been a particularly difficult thing. Many people sort of had time, but went across in healthy NHS with test and trace and other sorts of things. So it was a real sort of void in that area. But we got through it, we're still going. We're still supporting a lot of people with a team of about 40 train volunteers at the moment. And what about the future, I was talking to somebody earlier. And I still think that the impact of the pandemic and how it's going to work out, we're still not seeing the end of it by any means. So we feel there's a real need for our service going forward or think that as people begin to sort of come out of isolation, which has been a real problem for sector as a whole, that we'll continue to see a lot of people referred into our service. So if you know anybody that would be Bennett would benefit from it, and do talk to me or Becky later. And if you'd like to find out more about what we do, as well, we literally last week launched a brand new website syteline.org.uk. And that's got lots of information. It's got lots of stories from both our service users and our volunteers about how they've benefited from service, many of whom see the services as an absolute lifeline for for what's happened over the last 18 months and for the future as well. And if I give you just one example. So we had a service user come on to the SERPs last year, an elderly gentleman in his 90s and he is matched up with one of our trained volunteers. They talk for three hours a week, every week without fail. And it's one of his big highlights or his week, and without that support, his life won't be as rich as it is at the moment. Final thing we are all the usual social media channels so you can pick us up there as well. I've got my 10 minutes wrap.

most disciplined speakers I've ever come across believe in I think there you have examples of what Ian and  saying and indeed one name is insane. And I'm sure next speaker to some of the problems that aren't always obvious but certainly are there. Our third speaker If my mum was here now, she'd shout at me and really tell me off because I've left a lady speaker until third ladies first show that he is also a member of our site. council, Kelly is founder of Six Dots counseling, and indeed one of my former students, so I'm very proud to introduce her this morning, Kelly 10 minutes.

Hi, everyone. Thanks very much for having me here today. It's really like everyone said, it's great to be back in the room as people say I'm sick of Zoom. But yeah, so just to put this into a little bit of context, really, so I'll just tell you a little bit about myself. And then hopefully, that it all kind of makes sense a bit more. So I am visually impaired myself, like, obviously, many of you here have been since I was born. And like Frank just said, You used to be my teacher. So I went to St. Vincent's and, and then, kind of after school, I went to university and I've done a few different things job wise in terms of journalism and marketing, and a few different and, but I think as I got older, I wanted to do something different. And I went through a few life experiences myself. And about seven years ago, I decided to train as a counselor, and just something completely different to what I've done before. And I've worked a lot with kind of bereavement. And I've worked with care. And so I've done a lot of counseling. In the past few years. During the lockdown, I think as, as has been mentioned by Naomi and others in the room today, it was really, really tough for for us, but you know, visually impaired people with social distancing with, you know, losing independence, worrying about going out and about, so life did really change. And it was during that time, I read a lot of stories in the media, you know, all the people who are really struggling. And I felt that there was kind of, although there are other, you know, larger organisations that do offer some counseling support, I felt like it would be a good time to utilise the skills that have been counseling to help or the visually impaired people say that at that point, I set up the organisation called Six Dots counseling. And that is to provide a sight loss counseling service for anyone who's blind, partially sighted or visually impaired. And so lately, one of my colleagues is here with me today, she's the chairperson of the management committee. And I kind of got this idea during lockdown, but I wasn't applied, we applied for the first lot of funding and I wasn't really sure whether it go anywhere. And we you know, we got National Lottery, we've got a lot of other funding sense, which is great, because it now means that we can offer a free counseling service to people who've lost sight loss. So at the moment, I am the kind of the only counselor in the next few months, we are looking to bring in another counselor as well, because the demand is quite high to counsel that is quite different to all the things that have been talked about today. So befriend him, which is absolutely brilliant. But people need

counseling is quite different. In terms of we've got sort of more therapeutic boundaries. So I've trained in person centered counseling, cognitive behavior therapy. So in terms of counseling, it's more about working through an issue with someone or helping them to move forward in their own life. So it's more than just a chance, it's kind of working through cement together at the moment, we offer counseling, over the telephone, on Zoom, or face to face, depending on what people feel comfortable with. And I'm hoping that as we go forward, more people will want it face to face, because I think it's a really good way to help people to build their confidence. So they kind of work with, I've worked in the basement with people of all ages of all backgrounds, so from people in their 20s, who are just find out that they're losing their vision. And you know, rightfully to people who are in the older age groups who've just really struggled during lockdown. See the sight loss counseling service that I provide, and can be for people that you know, they may want to answer because of their sight loss, they may actually want it for a different reason. It might be because they've had a bereavement or something's going on at home, or they're struggling with depression and anxiety. And the fact is that the sight loss is a vehicle to enable them to have access to service for free. And I think that the fact that I have lived experience of you know, a visual impairment really helps. And any other counselors that we take on will also have experience with visual impairment because I think what you find is no matter what issue people bring to counseling, whatever it is they want to talk about, you often find that the sight loss forms a part of it. So you know, I've worked with people who've been bereaved. And obviously the main reason they need the counseling is the bereavement. However, because they can't see that person who they've lost might have been our eyes as well. So that beside thing often comes into it in so many different ways. And you know, and I hope that through the lived experience I have that I'm able to support them in that way. We are also in the second area, we've just got one to do group sessions. And so again, to kind of reengage people very small group sort of six to eight people where we're going to look at how lockdown is being perceived and use for the techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy to to help them with that and You know, depression or anxiety or just use the techniques. So things like visualization and routed exercise were really helpful, you know, to feel more relaxed if they're struggling with anxiety. And recently, I was working with a young girl who'd have counseled in the past. And she said to me, the counseling should have been great. But she said, she said to me what a difference it means to talk to someone with a visual impairment. And it's always good to hear that because, you know, I always think having lived experience, it's nice to hear that, but for other people that it really does. So we have got, our website is six dots counseling.org. And we are on social media as well. If anyone wants any information, I will be here and I can give you no contact numbers and or take your contact details. If anyone wants anything in an alternative format, I can take your details and get it to you. I'm in Braille or log into, or whatever works for you. So I think that's everything. And obviously later on, I'm more than happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much.

And that's, those are our three speakers that will between now and 12 o'clock, we're going to have some questions. We've got some pre submitted questions. And also, there will be some from our colleagues on Zoom, and some from the floor. And I can assure you that if your question isn't dealt with, or you haven't had a chance to ask it, we will take questions and deal with them and signpost, people and give you feedback. So you may go away today without your question having been dealt with, but it will be rest assured, this isn't just a meeting, and there'll be a void and nothing else happens. I think that's fair, massive. Absolutely. Thank you. Great. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to ask James Lee, who was also a member of our council to go through one or two questions for our speakers. And then I will try and take some from the floor as well. And again, sorry to repeat, but I would ask him to speak and please be succinct. so juicy wants to carry on.

So free question for each of you. So the question was three questions that you like, Michael, first question is, what would you play this opportunity last year?

So Michael, can I just check that you've heard that on zoom? Okay. I presume so.

The biggest opportunity, I think it's the fact that the world is opening up a bit again, we likewise moved all of our services during the pandemic, over the phone or online. But we are massively aware that that excludes a vast swathes of the population from accessing support, and often the most vulnerable. So for me, I think it's the fact that the doors are opening up are there and people can move around. But what we are aware of is the impact of people's mental health problem pandemic has been vast. And it's going to be a number of years, in a sense before we properly understand that impact. But I think the faster we can start getting society, you know, moving and connecting with you kind of get early help to people to stop it becoming a crisis.

Okay. The second question you talked about in your, in your session, the need for you to focus more towards the service provision for blind and partially sighted people. So can you tell us a little bit more about how you will actually go about doing that?

So we've had a couple of conversations already with friends from Brookfield, we'll be having another one. Today, actually, I'm fixing got an opportunity to explore further what we can do out of both sides. So actually, what can my guys come and do where you are already at and meet regularly? And similarly, what can potentially you do to come and help us develop our staff, develop our learning experiences, co create opportunities for

people?

Joe's in the next 10 minutes? Can we deal with your questions and restricted to that and then move to the floor? During the next 10 minutes, can we deal with your questions, and then can move to taking any from the floor or from Zoom? So that's great. Thank

you. Okay, so final question, Michael. I think I've probably touched on this in your last response. How can people get involved in terms of getting probably that when people get involved in terms of supporting your work on board?

I guess I have touched on it. We're hoping to come and spend more time at groups sessions like this where we can maybe begin to get more feedback about the things that are a challenge for you around any forms of life access. And then we want to help what we want you to help us create the learning experiences. It shouldn't be a do to process with a work side by side process.

Right? Answer questions two in question four, do you think the biggest opportunity to work in the coming year

undoubtedly, the biggest opportunity for us is to re engage with our partner organisations and increase the service offering. So I'm already talking to the ICT clinic liaison offices across the region. Talking with national and local sight loss charities to raise the awareness of what we do, and make it more available than it is at the moment and increase the number of service users that we can support.

Okay, what trends have you identified on the back of the 100% increase you talked about earlier, and what is happening as a result?

Okay, so the increase was a challenge for us as an organization. What we've seen is that, during a pandemic, run partially sighted people have become increasingly isolated. That's the major trend. But we're also seeing a break in the trend of the service being predominantly to people aged over 60 that we're taking on younger and younger search users. And interestingly, younger younger volunteers as well.

And finally, you mentioned, obviously, the impact on COVID seems to be lots of information and news at the moment about potential increase again. So if you want any message of mine and Marty scientists month,

I agree that so the trend for COVID is hasn't dropped off at a rate that I sure those in authority would like to have seen. All I can say is that we will continue to be there or blind or partially sighted people are we are making every effort that we can to make sure that we can meet any increase in demand that might happen over the winter months.

Question for Kelly? Kelly, again, the same question initially, what is the biggest opportunity for your work over the coming year, you mentioned that you have some new funding? Absolutely. Tell us what your more opportunity would be? I think, because we're quite a new organisation. And opportunities really is around building relationships with a lot more organisations. So at the moment, we get a lot of referrals from close, Robert fields Galloway. So it's just keeping those relationships and building up more so that we could reach out to as many people as possible in the Burnside area. Okay, you talked about the personal experiences in terms of what led you to setting up the charity. What do you think is the biggest learning point, I think, is realizing that everyone, I mean, I knew this anyway. But I think when you work with people, you know, it's such an individual basis, it's realizing how different everyone's journey is. So you know, to my sort of experience, same thing, but everyone's journey to that place is just so so different. And what would you say, for anyone that's listening in or sitting in the room today, you've got an idea, but hasn't actually done anything about it yet. Just go for it, do it. Don't Don't hold back, because ideas often do grow things. So just Just do it.

Thanks very much as you can I just ask now, Rachel, I hope you can hear me. Good. Excellent. Are there any questions which are burning from our zoom colleagues?

There are none. On Facebook, not neither on Facebook at the moment either? No.

Okay, that's great. Well, well, chicken when you can so I can take questions from the thought, as I totally manage myself. I'm going to be assisted by Gemma from one of the managers of Bradley bill. So Jamal will identify people because I think you know, quite a number of people in the room out. So are there any, any burning questions from the floor please

for

any of the Sight Loss Council people are ready for us. For our speaker.

Joe's

Yeah.

Michael, Michael, I'm really, really interested in your service provision. It sounds like nothing else I've heard about, is there any attempt or dialogue to replicate the same provision in other areas immediately?

It's really interesting, interesting point that you raised yours. No, we are the only one in the country. Certainly the only NHS one. There are places around doing elements of what we do. But nobody's brought it all together. So yes, there's quite a bit of research at the moment in Cheshire and Merseyside, Professor Michael Marmot, who is at the center for social inequality at University College London, is leading the whole process in Cheshire and Merseyside. Looking at the data around population health and well being we're a case study featured within that as being something a little bit different. And we have published we do we do research into this. And I think it's an interesting one because there was an element of there was an appetite on the part of our organization to respond to the lived experience and insights of the people on the receiving end of our services. Not everywhere in the system has a board with that level of moral fiber or even courage, shall we say? I probably shouldn't say that our record there is a sense that they were willing to take seriously the views of people who were on the receiving end and that's why we did it. Some people thought we were absolutely mad to do it, but it's five years in we're beginning to see some of the research and the evidence behind the evidence.

Okay, and the other question

is what is one on Zoom? So it's for Kelly. Is the Six Dots counseling service a free service? Yes, it is.

great. I have one new one. 

Thank you. This is a sort of a question about something I'm writing a book and I'm. Can everybody hear me? Yeah, I'm writing a book at the moment about the experiences of people with sight loss. If anybody here or on Zoom would like to contact me, I would be very grateful. And then can I just say. I am also deaf, and I have struggled with some of the speakers this morning. and can I also say, I have written something. guide dog. inaudible. can I read it at the end?

inaudible. Hopefully there will be time. Thank you. There are some more questions.

A question about the region?

 The whole of the Merseyside area average city region yeah yeah Liverpool City region yet yes.

And someone else please Yeah. Can you announce who you are and then we'll know call Yeah.

inaudible.

inaudible.  Did you catch us on Zoo mbecause it was fairly quiet speaker I'm usually

no I didn't get up front.

Before was asking Michael about his organization's website to the drop down etc. And Michael you can deal with that issue.

So he does have accessibility software that enables it to be used so the Murphy can main website is now fully functioning in the way we would want it. The lifegroups It is not as good as I would want. But actually we're just in the process, we've just commissioned the full redevelopment with a focus on full accessibility, including listening software and easy read.

inaudible.

like that very much. So the the will be a lived experience focus group working as part of the task group for the website. So by all means getting through to me, and we will include you in we're wanting this to be a we trade as an inclusion service. And we need to be a downside better active than we are. But we'll only get there if you willing to help us. So yes, please. Before I was

doing college ball is an offering assistance from his angle for comments and observations and help or assistance advice on on websites and what suitable VIP and what not. I think we have another question. Yeah.

This is how lovely this

inaudible.

Thank you. Thank you

for joining us,

staff. Thank you. Again, inaudible.  I'm just translating. And just to explain to our Zoom colleagues, Brian is asking about the labeling Braille labeling on drugs, various drugs and medicines, etc. And it's particularly addressed to the Sight Loss Council. So I'm passing that over to Matthew, I think he's going to deal with that. Absolutely.

Yes. So Brian, completely by the Sight Loss Council is our campaign and advocacy lobbying is exactly what we want to do is listen to that voice and do what I'm about to tell us they want us to do you're absolutely right in terms of labeling and not to spray actually it's not a one to use though I for one would don't unify every promote use rail but I might use technologies that they support that yes, you'd like to look at labeling and I don't actually see shouldn't stop so I was trying to advocate that and that was definitely a smaller level of competition with the optimised product

right? Yeah, that really quickly again, like

inaudible.

inaudible.

inaudible.

Nicky Barnett is the deputy chief executive of Bradley fields here in Liverpool,

inaudible.

Absolutely. At lunchtime, you can you can show them the details yes. Nikki was offering assistance there possibly from one or two people we know at Bradbury fields who who do work in this field, I think we have one large amount of work. It says

inaudible. wondering whether incorporated on your website with directions how to get to the various venues, waiting rooms, and in terms of people actually being able to negotiate the outdoor environment to get there because that is the biggest stumbling block in my world. Around the corner, it doesn't have to get that Yeah, you can find that where it is so far to the house lately, getting to make it more acceptable would be actually to make the venue accessible online so people can get that.

Can I just summarise. Nikki is talking about information on Michael's organisation's website to make sure that there are directions for visually impaired people to get to the various centers where their organisation works, Michael,

just to say I think that is really helpful. It could be a million miles away couldn't say that actually that that that descriptive direction isn't there? So I absolutely will take that away.

We've got a question from Rachel's who,

Rachel, please. Sorry,

yes. So Eamonn. On Facebook asks, What would you ask sighted people to do to become more aware of the challenges for blind and partially sighted people?

Who's that to?

anyone Yeah.

Communications always crucial in every walk of life.

And I can I just say something.

Inaudible. I think that it's a two way situation with only a pair people because not everybody goes blind or visually impaired. And depending on where you're talking about that you want people to be able to sit, they actually play by sight loss as well. Certainly, if you're in a pandemic, one of the things that we thought of would probably build was that people coming into our center or sorry, okay, okay. So a lot of people, they don't want to carry it, but other people wouldn't that won't necessarily know you're visually impaired. So I actually think needs to be more encouraged to actually carry a cane, so that the wider public know that you've got sight loss. But I know that's not for

everybody. Thank you. I know certainly when I was a teacher at St. Vincent's school for the body logo for many years, a lot of our partially sighted and partially sighted development awkward term, really, because their sight can be pretty reasonable in ordinary life, and not very good in bright sunlight. They just did not want sometimes did not want people to know that they had a sight problem. And it's very difficult. I don't know, Kelly, if you've got a view on this as someone with sight loss, and

that I mean, I agree, I think carrying a cane is really important. And I do think it's a two way street. And sometimes I think we expect sighted people to know what they don't know that might have never met someone with a visual impairmnet. So it's really important to  educate people not with a chip on your shoulder, in a polite manner, and so on. Would you mind doing it like this and I'll get on with that. I think we need to communicate as much as possible. three more questions from

the floor, where we're struggling, folks, very quickly.

One quick question for me. About an hour in.Probably the last one on social prescribing sports or physical activity, and I'm wondering whether that was routinely parts of social prescribing? And if so, how much like a walking group should not be accessible to visually impaired people. 

That's possibly to me as well as well. I think that is another absolutely great point. We have a lot of sporting activity, and we have personal trainers on our livestream stuff as well, for for, for our own learning experiences. And we haven't done it yet. We will now. inaudible.

Mike Bailey here is talking about a an article he wrote some time ago concerning payments. And last very quick question. 

It was just to to answer the question the person asked online, I think was Rachel was just talk come over and talk. I think sometimes when you've got a guide dog, it gives an opportunity that people do come over to you, but if you haven't got a guide dog with a tial in your face. I think, I think just be I agree with Kelly, we've got to take some responsibility and be a bit more relaxed about our situation. And I think we want people to talk to us. So if anyone ever sees us just come up and talk. And that's that's that starts the conversation. You don't have to do anything special. Just coming in. Okay with us.

Thank you Norma, that I'm going to draw the questions will close now, because we're moving into our breakout session, and you have 10 minutes to deal with these three questions. You've got scribes on each table here, and I know it's sorted out on zoom. And your three questions that folks are, what should we just run through? What do you find most difficult during COVID? What services do you want to access now? And what can be done to help? So, if you move to your breakout work, I'll call you back 10 past 12

I'm sorry to be so bossy, but we do have time. Right? I'm going to take that a smattering of answers from each of the tables. But I'm not going to take every answer from every table. And that will take us too long. But we will be taking note of what people have written on each table. And we will be collecting stuff and giving you information and feedback later on. Perhaps Massa can ask your tables to give us how you dealt with question one. You're not mad. At Mr. Cliff, the bus

coming out to COVID show more time in the surroundings in their own homes. hippopotamuses wants to be more than most it was actually going back out into the outside world using sensors that perhaps you don't need to switch off when you're back at home. So one of the biggest issues but actually that transition said, you know, real life mobility on our smart people said you needed as a result of a civil rehab provision. Walking through so last thing,

I think many of us will know the examples. real life example of that sort of situation, I'm sure. Can I ask? Normally your table? I'm not sure who your spouse might be you have question question two question. Question two.

question we asked, I mean that you fell into all of the questions, really the answers that we got. And it was about isolation, loneliness, not getting appointments at hospital, not enough getting cleared information for anyone abandoned and you know, things that they've coped with before COVID it's very hard to cope with not having a family around them on their own, and going to the shops getting shopping. So this generalized isolation, isn't it, you know, where people can't get anyone else to do things,

but what services do you have you people said you want to?

Yeah, hospitals, hospital appointments and clear information from the hospitals, especially the aisle seven, so I'm not knocking the I suppose. That's the things that we will talk about. Also, what was it about the hospital? Could we not well, one page is not affected on Sight Loss Council. So in our group, yeah. So it was a lot of stuff that you were talking about wasn't the Margaret but mainly, I put in the hospital clear information, because apparently, in the hospitals being used in elective services, you have to get your system and then you wait three months to get a reply from you, consultants. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry.

Thank you very much. That's that's very helpful. Again, community locations sell often the biggest in work in playing Whatever. I'm told we can't go to zoom because it hasn't worked as far as their breakout session went. So yours, yours, you're not the spokesman now. Are you? spokeswoman. Sorry. And it's Jonathan. What does much of your question three, three?

Yeah. How did you deal with that? might not have had a chance to get to an answer people

tell me about having my interest in the library. inaudible.

inaudible.

Fine, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Please, yes to

talking about picking up on what Norma would say about hospitals. And more generally, that being a need for training, though, in terms of services going forward, we've been considering that people it's not unreasonable to expect staff in areas that we come into contact with have much better awareness of visual impairment.

Indeed, in fact, some of us on site last cancelled on those sites that are working on quite a big project to do with, with training uncertainly. Hospitals are, are in our line of sight. We're trying to help in that situation. And Jamal Can Can you tell us what your table dealt with? With question one?

Question one, Will our responses from our table was the biggest responses in terms of people being on the road be left at home with the kids having them support, especially as support was from older people in the family? So that was a big voice and in terms of the family support, and still anxious, even after lockdown? Because the question focused on coming out of lockdown as well. And and after COVID, especially getting the boss or going to school playgrounds. And again, that was really important to see the dynamics of people wearing masks, and socializing. And loneliness isolation, again, that feature family also being stuck in the house was a big factor. And if it wasn't for the children, and the dogs, I can't go again, focusing on that element as well. You know, for companionship, remember the loneliness and isolation a lot that people with depression as well. And, and we also noticed, I think it was the local spell on this one, a process

of Thank you. Thank you. That's very helpful. That's great. I'm not, I'm not sure which tables I've now left out. Naomi, sorry. Naomi, you're you're

practicing and I'm scribing today I have a question too for you if you like Thank you. So services now. accessibility to COVID information is more of the IP for in terms of Braille, large print audios,  and face to face services reopen bigger Bradbury fields will be a big thing. A real return to the pre pandemic position and access to GP surgeries on a face to face basis rather than the crisis situation that we have where it's all over the phone.

Thank you. That's great. And last but not questions here's what can be done to help. Michael you have a table

along with no lesson has already felt that that's

fine. Kelly,

please help us out. And we also talked about people working together also help people Welcome everyone. Welcome. Although it kind of goes on to cooperate. Thank you.

My question to you is what services? Do you want to access now, a poll about your

services

versus general accessibility?

It's getting back in tune. Things like dealing with mental health services and services that the elderly find a primary satisfaction with, some people actually suffer more. I prefer to speak out loud. In two boxes. Right off the bat. In both cases, I shouldn't walk with so many people in a room without closing people.

Thank you. Yeah, I think it's just one table to go. Can I kind of fast that I had a list of who is the head of each table? and coffee was built on it. I can't read it.  Right? Is it Naomi? Sorry. Great, folks, thank you very much for that, as I say, all feedback from you will be taken and notes will be, we won't be correcting spelling don't worry. But we will take notes of what you're saying. And there will be a documented 

That's my part ladies and gentleman. Inaudible. People on zoom, I'm sorry, the break up didn't quite work out for you. But again, we will be receiving any questions or comments from our Zoom colleagues and they will be taken into account we want to collated it's my present duty now to pass over to Norma , who is also a member of our Sight Loss Council, and Norma is going to give the official goodbyes, Norma.

Oh, thanks so much. Try and give a round of applause.

Thank all

of our speakers who've been absolutely fabulous. Wonderful to listen to you, Kelly. You're an inspiration. Right? And to us, folks, the very special people of all the VIP community. You need all of this. You need to get some normality back. And everything else. Jamal, thank you for bringing everyone in .  And of course, inaduble. who helped us yesterday with the setting up of the tables. Thank you so much, folks. And it was lovely to be in your company.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai