VISPA is Launched by Minister for health
Ireland’s leading service providers for blind and vision impaired people have formed the VISPA an alliance which will help streamline services in the future.
The vision impaired service providers alliance (VISPA) was launched by the Minister for Health Mary Harney at the Mansion House, Dublin on April 28th when a memorandum of understanding was signed by NCBI, Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, St. Joseph’s Centre for the Visually Impaired and Fighting Blindness.
VISPA will present a cohesive voice in the advocacy of services for blind and vision impaired people and already it has launched a comprehensive directory of services which is available as a CD, a print document and also on the VISPA web site at www.vispa.ie.
Speaking at the launch, VISPA chairman Padraig Mallon (chief executive of Irish Guide Dogs), welcomed the minister and said this “marked the beginning of a more formal structure which will guide and shape the cooperation which already exists between the four organizations. The purpose of the collaboration is to develop a flow of information and through a collective effort to ensure that services for people of all ages who are blind and vision impaired continue to improve, are funded appropriately and are readily available”.
Padraig Mallon went on to enumerate some of the programmes which VISPA would undertake in the near future, including a major piece of research to be commissioned by NCBI and shared with VISPA, which will establish up-to-date figures for levels of blindness and vision impairment in the Republic of Ireland. This will seek to establish a true figure for diagnosed conditions, provide a breakdown of the main eye conditions causing blindness, draw comparisons with international figures and provide some projections for sight loss over the next five, ten and fifteen years.
“This is one of the first outlets of our cooperation and it will be led by professors Jonathan Jackson and Colm O’Brien. The number of people who are on the blind register at present stands at just over 13,000. While this may seem a lot, our belief is that the true number is much greater. This information will help our organisations in planning the future of our services and responses to client needs and will guide us in VISPA to ensure that our response is comprehensive. It will also assist the health and educational services at a statutory level to better plan for the needs of those who are blind or vision impaired.” Other research projects are currently being planned.
In welcoming the VISPA alliance and the launch of the directory, Minister Harney said: “I am delighted that so many people with a similar interests have come together to form what could broadly be called a one-stop shop. When we look as something as simple as the VISPA service directory we see the whole range of service that your organisations provide. Clearly, for those who are vision impaired and their families, this directory has to be an invaluable resource in helping people to access services.
“It has been an interest of mine for some time, and we have been doing some thinking at the Department of Health in relation to the disability sector in particular, to see how we can forge alliances such as the one we are launching here this morning. I think that it will be not only in the interest of those who use the services, but also in the interest of the organisations themselves and clearly in the interest of the Health services. We are seeking to engage with organisations that have a lot in common and I hope that other organisations will follow on the example that has been set by the VISPA alliance.
“It is important that we pool resources because I think in that way we will be able to get better results, better outcomes for those who use the services. And of course, I have always been a strong fan of having the appropriate data and audits in relation to service and I hear what you say about the 13,000 and it may well be as a result of the alliance that we will be able to get accurate data, and not just in relation to blind people but those who have different vision impairment challenges, as many people do. I would suspect, without knowing, that we are talking about a figure that is somewhat higher than 13,000”.
The minister went on to acknowledge the presence Alan Dukes, who is a member of Irish Guide Dogs and former leader of Fine Gael and former minister for several departments, and said: “Generally, politicians sign memoranda of understanding and I am delighted to see that the voluntary sector are now doing so.
Something really great
“I hope that this is genuinely the beginning of something really great happening here, as far as this sector is concerned, because a number of years ago the Controller and Auditor General drew attention to the need to bring organisations together in the disability sector and for many reasons, not just for budgetary or financial reasons, although they are not unimportant, but clearly from the perspective of those who use services it is really important. I am pleased to be here to launch the VISPA alliance, to encourage the collaboration and the work that you are going to do together and in particular to acknowledge the emerging research. In the health field, today’s research is very often tomorrow’s health policy and care. So it is a great pleasure to launch the VISPA alliance, we look forward to meaningful engagement with your alliance over the weeks, months and years ahead”.
Responding to questions from NCBI News about the alliance, Minister Harney said, “I think from the perspective of the health service and the HSE engaging with organisations, it is always an awful lot easier from both perspectives, if you have a single entity. Now I accept that the four organisations are independent organisations and the alliance is for specific reasons, but hopefully it will be the beginning of something really powerful in the area of blindness and vision impairment.
“It is a great sign of what can be done and should be done and hopefully other organisations in the voluntary sector will follow suite because we know, for example, in the intellectual disability sector alone in Ireland, we have 500 organisations providing services. This is a small country and the more we can bring organisations together in alliances or forming collaborations the better the outcomes for those who use the services”.
The Vispa Parnters
Fighting Blindness is leading the way in supporting research into the causes of blindness and finding a cure, it has been very successful in this regard and had made great strides in genetic research and in putting Ireland on the map as a centre of excellence for clinical research in the area.
Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind has over the past 32 years made a huge contribution to the lives of those who are vision impaired — particularly in the area of mobility training. The children and adults with whom it works are given the opportunity to be trained with the long cane, independent living skills or with a guide dog to fully participate in society, in work, leisure or travel.
NCBI provides a wide range of services and supports the people who are living with sight loss in order to assist them to live independent lives and to reach their potential — from running a low vision clinic to providing IT skills. NCBI is working for people with sight loss in both traditional and new areas.
St. Joseph’s Centre for the Visually Impaired specializes in meeting the needs of young people who are blind or visually impaired, starting with an assessment St. Joseph’s works with children through their lives providing them with their educational skills for life. St. Joseph’s is leading the way in providing support to children and young adults with multiple disabilities and vision impairment.