A blind person can live comfortably and safely almost anywhere he or she chooses to live. Certainly, the same choices about living quarters should be available to the blind as are available to sighted individuals.
MYTH: Blind people need to live in special homes.
FACT: Blind people want and need to live in a great variety of different types of situations depending on many other characteristics besides blindness.
EXAMPLE: The AAF received a telephone call from a Mrs. Thompson who wanted to know what kind of nursing home could take care of her blind mother. The mother had been living with Mrs. Thompson and had fallen several times. Mrs. Thompson believed it was not safe for her mother to live in a house with stairs. When we checked into the problem, it developed that Mrs. Thompson's mother had dizzy spells because of high blood pressure. When this was controlled with medication, no change in the living situation was necessary. If it had not been possible to control the dizziness, perhaps Mrs. Thompson's mother would have wished a change. Mrs. Thompson had incorrectly assumed that the falls were caused by blindness.
The office of the American Action Fund frequently receives phone calls asking us to recommend nursing homes for blind people. There are no such nursing homes. All nursing homes can accommodate blind people adequately. We try to help questioners understand this and we offer to talk with staff members from nursing homes about blindness, if they wish us to do so. Most important, however, we try to help these callers understand that blindness alone need not mean an elderly person must move into a nursing home.
Nursing homes offer special health services which are indeed valuable to many senior citizens. Special medication, special diets, special therapy, bed care and other health services can be administered on a daily basis in a nursing home and this is important to many individuals. If an individual needs any of these services and he or she is blind, that person should be able to have the same choices with regard to living situations that he or she would have if sighted. In addition, if a newly blinded person wishes to move into a nursing home, and if arrangements can be made so that his or her activities will not be greatly limited, this may be a reasonable arrangement.
MYTH. Blind people may hurt themselves while walking around the house.
FACT: A blind person will occasionally hurt himself or herself by bumping something, just as everyone does. A newly blinded person who has not yet developed new techniques may get more bumps and bruises for awhile. If not permitted to move about, he or she will never learn to avoid them and is likely to become very unhappy.
EXAMPLE: I received a letter from a gentleman who said: "A friend of mine who is 83 years old has recently become blind and she is forced to sit all day long in a nursing home strapped in her chair. Her mind is as good as it ever was and this seems wrong to me. What can I do about it?" Of course, it seemed wrong to me, too. I wrote the gentleman, told him about the white cane and library services. I told him that this lady should first be given the opportunity to move about in her own room and then encouraged to go elsewhere. I recommended that he do what he could for his friend, since it was clear that many people did not feel as he did about blindness.
What should be avoided is pushing a blind person into a nursing home against his or her will, if blindness is the reason for doing it. If a person lives alone when he or she becomes blind, that individual needs to learn some new techniques for doing things around the house. For some individuals, this is very difficult and they feel very upset emotionally. They need moral support, ideas about how to do things (See Chapter 5) and probably some instruction in cane travel and a few other skills. This kind of support may make it possible for a newly blinded person in good health to make a good adjustment to blindness and continue living alone. In a few cases, the newly blinded person is so depressed and upset that the adjustment to blindness may require a change in the living situation. Any decision about moving should be made carefully and the blind person has the primary responsibility for deciding where he or she will live as long as that person is mentally alert. Let me hasten to add that blindness does not change a person's mental ability and families and friends should not forget it.
In recent years thousands of older citizens have found it desirable to move into senior citizens villages, apartment buildings, mobile home parks, or clusters of houses reserved for retired people. Some of these include group dining rooms and recreation, while others have very few special services. Undoubtedly, some blind people will find arrangements such as these desirable. Undoubtedly, some will not. Blindness has nothing to do with whether or not a person should be permitted to move into a room or apartment in a senior citizen group. A social worker or activities director working with senior citizens in such a situation might be very helpful to the blind person in two ways:
1. Such a person might be prepared to offer some of the moral support and ideas about techniques that a newly blinded person needs.
2. An activities director or social worker might also be able to help other residents accept the blind person more readily, since some of them may feel uneasy about blindness.
There are also ways to make the adjustment to blindness slower and more difficult for the newly blinded person whether intended or not. One example of this is: To fuss over him or her and to insist on helping with a multitude of simple daily tasks or to do them for the blind person. Of course, a newly blinded person needs some sympathy and understanding. This can be given without offering too much concern. A well-meaning wife or husband who waits on a newly blinded spouse all day long, trying to anticipate his or her needs will often unintentionally make blindness worse instead of better for the loved one. Nursing home attendants who ask or require a blind individual to sit still and have food or other items brought to him or her may, also unintentionally, make blindness worse instead of better and damage the health of the blind person as well, by causing too little physical activity. We repeat here that blindness is one of hundreds of characteristics. If a change in the living situation is being considered, blindness certainly may be a factor in determining where to live. A blind person who travels independently on city buses will want to live near a bus line. Many other factors are also important, such as desire to be near or far away from family members, convenience of shopping and medical services, a desire to take part in or avoid senior citizens activities, general health and other interests.
To sum it up, then, blind people can, wish to and do live in every conceivable type of home and living situation. This is right and proper. Blind people and others who doubt it need to think about it. It is common sense, normal, and reasonable.