• >Home
• >Social care and health
• >Disability
• >Physical and sensory impairment
• Sensory impairment

• Home
• Social care and health
• Disability
• Physical and sensory impairment

• Sensory impairment

Sensory Impairment Team

The Sensory Impairment Team works with people of all ages in Coventry who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing and people who have a visual impairment. We also work with people who have dual sensory loss (that is they have both sight and hearing loss).

We are part of a wider department called Community Services (which used to be called Social Services). We work closely with other services, such as older people's teams, occupational therapists, staff at the hospital's eye department and voluntary organisations.

Who are the Sensory Impairment Team?

The Sensory Impairment Team is made up of specialist workers and clerical support.

Specialist workers include:

• A state registered social worker who works with people aged 18-65 who have a sensory impairment
• Services to deaf and deafened people have a community care worker, a development worker and equipment officers.
• Services to visually impaired people have a team of qualified rehabilitation workers.

When deciding whom we are able to provide a service to we must use eligibility criteria that have been set by the Department of Health. For individuals who do not meet our eligibility criteria we provide information to direct them to alternative services. This might be a health professional, a voluntary group or another council directorate.

What does the team do? The Sensory Impairment Team's primary function is to promote independent living, supporting people to develop and maintain an independent life as much as they are able to. The Sensory Impairment Team provides many different types of support, including rehabilitation training and the provision of equipment, all with a view to increasing the choices available to service users.

This may mean helping people to identify their own goals, to relearn a skill they have lost as a result of their sensory loss or to identify a new skills that will increase their choice and independence. Equipment can be provided to people, aiming to reduce risk and enable people to retain independence. This may be equipment relating to communication needs of people who are deaf or deafened or that supports independence for someone who has limited vision. Rehabilitation and equipment services are currently available to people of all ages.

In order to identify and support the needs of the individual, specialist assessments will be offered. This could be a community care assessment, rehabilitation assessment, a registration assessment or an equipment assessment.

Community care assessment

People aged 18-65 whose needs cannot be met by the provision of equipment or rehabilitation training may be eligible for an assessment of community care needs with either the community care worker or social worker. People over 65 would have a community care assessment with older people's services. Young people, those under 18, may be able to have an assessment of their needs through children's services.

Another job of the Sensory Impairment Team is to maintain the registers of people who are blind, partially sighted, hearing impaired or who have dual sensory loss. When a ophthalmologist consultant decides that a person is eligible for registration as blind or partially sighted, they will complete a Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI). A copy of the certificate is sent to the Sensory Impairment Team. Registration is voluntary and the individual will be contacted to explain what benefits and services are available and to establish whether or not they wish to be placed on the register. The process for registration as hearing impaired or having dual sensory loss is less formal and is also voluntary. Registration may include certain benefits or concessions, for example a reduction in television licence.

The team operates a duty system whereby a worker is available Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, 9.00am to 1.00pm, to respond to queries and take referrals.

Contact details