La rehabilitación un pilar para garantizar la calidad de vida de personas con baja visión

Abstract

Vision is one of the most dominant senses of the human being, which supports and energizes several aspects of the life cycle. Throughout this, vision helps in independence, maintenance of social contact, self-care, sense of identity, mental health and well-being. Vision can be compromised by visual deficiencies, which occur when an eye condition or disease affects some component of the visual system, causing impairment of one or more of the visual functions. When these deficiencies interact with the context of people, amidst facilitators, barriers, attitudes and environments, disability can be generated, in this case visual disability. For this reason, it was considered pertinent to promote awareness and understanding in people with low vision and caregivers about the importance of visual rehabilitation within the framework of the process of care in visual health in order to promote autonomy and improve quality of life. To this end, local representatives who had groups of people with low vision characterized in the municipalities of Girón and Bucaramanga were approached. Subsequently, a participatory diagnosis was carried out with the people who decided to respond to the call, followed by awareness days and workshops on community appropriation and training. The activities described, which included the participation of people with visual disabilities and caregivers, allowed us to identify that they were unaware of the effects that low vision has on the spheres of human development and the benefits derived from the rehabilitation process. In the case of caregivers, by making the experience of having low vision a reality, it contributed to the understanding of the particular reality of those who suffer from the disease, an aspect that contributes significantly to consolidating the support network. Finally, people with low vision were induced to attend consultations in order to adequately monitor eye pathologies and define optical support devices. Attendance to visual rehabilitation processes was also induced. Taking into account the experience, it is concluded that awareness is key to promoting the consolidation of support networks and attendance to low vision and visual rehabilitation services.