Brief information
Mrs R is a 93-year-old lady who is a visually impaired due to a macular degeneration/ glaucoma. She is a very social person but due to her vision loss, she Mrs R is feeling lonely and isolated in the aged residential care. Mrs is not allowed to go out by herself for a walk and she is not happy about it as she loves walking. She would love to go out and do some activities
Mrs stated that she would love to have someone to talk to or do an activity for blind as limited activities for visually impaired are available in her residential aged care home.
To carry out changes I had to engage with a clinical manager to propose the quality improvement project idea and have it approved. Once approved I started to gathering the information about avaibility of mental or social support and activities for visually impaired. I found a support https://blindlowvision.org.nz/our-services/emotional-support/.
I found out that they provide a Telefriend peer support which could be a great mental support for my resident. I have introduced my idea to her, and she was so excited about it and we decided to go ahead with it. Only issue we had that she would have to call them. Mrs R has an old landline with big touch buttons. So I had to come up with idea how she going to dial the number. Her daughter did not have a manual to her landline so I had to google, and I found out that I could save a number in the memory. I have managed to save it in the memory and placed a bit eva sticker with T letter on the push button, so Mrs R will be able to call telefriend just by pressing T button. We have practised a few times where to find a letter on her phone. Later Mrs R was able to dial byherself and managed to speak with telefriend. Mrs R was so pleased and thanked me a lot as from now on she will be able to talk to someone with similar issues who understands her.
With resident approval I have registered her in Low blind vision NZ, https://blindlowvision.org.nz/our-services/sport-and-leisure/ so she would be able to attend activities especially for the visually impaired and could possible make a new friendships. Mrs R was contacted from Low vision blind NZ and they offered her upcomming leisure exploration and community events. Mrs was able to attend one event during my stay in aged residential care
Template for QI project uploaded, please use it.
I have provided and example to get an idea what it should look like