Klaipėdos universitetas

There is a wide range of rehabilitation programmes for the blind and visually impaired in Western countries, but these vary greatly in content and application, and no single ‘gold standard’ has been established, despite attempts to set such standards. In Lithuania, the policy for rehabilitation services for the blind and visually impaired began to be implemented in 2017. A qualitative research approach was chosen to determine the need for services and project activities for the blind and visually impaired, and to identify implementation shortcomings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five blind or visually impaired people and four of their family members. The results of the research revealed that the blind and visually impaired faced complex psychological and social problems before participating in the social rehabilitation programme for the blind. It was found that there is a lack of coordination in the transmission of information between health-care institutions, municipal social institutions and NGOs. Patients are forced to seek information on their own, which reduces accessibility, acceptability, and the effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions. Many of the research participants received services quite late, and, according to the informants, the social rehabilitation programme for the blind had quality shortcomings.