Charities the Royal Blind and Scottish War Blinded is calling for action to improve quality of life for people with sight loss
Blind or partially sighted Scots are more likely to experience loneliness because of their condition, according to new research.
According to the charity study, two thirds of vision impaired people have experienced loneliness and nine in 10 have turned to charitable services to overcome feelings of loneliness.
The problem affects both young people and old people affected with sight loss. The top three causes of loneliness were challenges with mobility and accessing transport, problems related to other health issues, and vision impairment making it hard to make friends.
However, the 300 Royal Blind and Scottish War Blinded service users who were interviewed said that the charities had been able to offer them support to help with loneliness, including equipment to help them live their lives to the full and maintain contact with family and friends.
William Montgomerie, 61, is a veteran who lives with glaucaoma and struggled with loneliness before getting involved with Scottish War Blinded in 2017.
He said: “The biggest danger of loneliness is how it makes you feel about yourself. The reality is that you might only speak to your Alexa device for days at a time – wishing her a Merry Christmas and no-one else. It can make you feel suicidal. You’re thinking to yourself, ‘what’s the real reason I’m here? What is the point of my life?’. I think its something a lot of lonely people have to deal with at the moment.”
With the number of people with sight loss projected to double over the next two decades in Scotland, Royal Blind is calling for the Scottish Government's new national strategy on loneliness to include actions to support for people with vision impairment.
In particular it believes people with sight loss need access to more community transport schemes, and there should be more vision impairment training in communities and public services.
Responding to the findings, Mark O'Donnell, chief executive of both the Royal Blind and Scottish War Blinded, said: "Our research shows that vision impairment can lead to loneliness at every stage of life, from making it difficult to make friends at school, to sight loss leaving older people unable to get out and about. The impact of sight loss must be part of the national discussion we are having on tackling loneliness in our society.
"There is much we can do to improve this situation, and that is why the Scottish Government's consultation on loneliness is welcome. We hope it leads to initiatives such as more community transport schemes for people with sight loss and action to ensure people with vision impairment can take part in local groups and activities.”
There are currently more than 188,000 people in Scotland living with significant sight loss.
Lewis: I struggled with isolation in mainstream high school
“In primary school I was accepted by my class and I made friends easily. Everyone wanted to be my friend because I was quite interesting to them because I was blind. Back then I remember enjoying going to school. I had lessons I preferred more than others – I liked art and music more than maths or science, but at that stage I didn’t really feel excluded.
“When I went to high school everything changed for me. My old friends from primary school deserted me and I suddenly found I was being excluded. This was partly because the teachers asked me to stop going outside during break-time. They told me there were health and safety issues with me being outside and I was told to spend breaks in a designated room within the school. There were other pupils there too but they all had other learning challenges and I didn’t feel included within that group either.
“It was horrible and I felt very lonely and excluded. I tried to join a music club at one stage but whenever I spoke up I felt I was being ignored. I could see that I wasn’t going to be included properly so I left after one week.
“It got to the point where my old friends were making mean comments about how I wouldn’t ever be able to get a job. I felt really angry and had an argument with them and I ended up having to move tutors.
“There were some positives in my time at mainstream school. It gave me my academic results, an A in music, a B in English, a B in Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies (RMPS) and an A in modern studies.
“There were one or two teachers that would go the extra mile to include me. Whenever my RMPS teacher drew on the board she would describe aloud what she was drawing, but it was rare that a teacher would make that extra effort. One teacher refused to stop using PowerPoint presentations, saying ‘that’s just the way I work’ so I feel that I was only able to get some of my results because I put in a lot of work a home. It feels horrible to be that excluded.
“I’m really happy to have had the chance to come to the Royal Blind School and I wish that I had been able to come here when I was younger. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming here. I could tell straight away that everyone is happy and I have found it very easy to make friends. It has made a big difference to me.”
