Involving stakeholders in designing a mental health curriculum for staff in the vision impairment sector

Abstract

Depression and anxiety are common in people with congenital and acquired vision impairment but often go unaddressed. Staff from a variety of professions and roles in the sight impairment sector are well-placed to identify mental health issues and signpost individuals for support. However, many of these individuals need training to do this competently. The aim of this project was to develop a mental health training curriculum for staff. We used a seven-step method involving staff and service users from national sight loss charities and local authorities, and university researchers. The result was a curriculum containing five modules covering an introduction to mental well-being, the use of a standardised depression and anxiety screening tool, referral and support options and implementation issues to consider. Future work involves developing the curriculum into an online training programme for wide dissemination across the sight loss sector.