STEVENSON RAISES THE ISSUE OF DEAFBLIND AWARENESS WEEK

Banff and Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson highlights the importance of Deafblind Awareness Week (DAW), which starts today and runs to 3rd July.

Commenting on the initiative, Mr Stevenson said:

“DAW is a health and social campaign that aims to highlight and raise the awareness of this little-known disability. There are approximately 23,000 people living with deafblindness in the UK, many of these have some residual hearing or sight. This campaign aims to educate the general public and medical profession.

“Deafblindness has been described as one of the loneliest conditions in the world. Understanding your surroundings without sight or hearing is beyond comprehension as well as the lack of understanding of the disability can lead to feelings of isolation and helplessness.

“This awareness week is a great opportunity to raise public awareness about issues facing people who live with deafblindness, therefore the celebration of Deafblind Awareness Week is vital for a number of reasons. It provides many great opportunities, including: to bring together old friends and make new ones while having fun, to celebrate the achievements of people within the deafblind community to introduce the general public, community groups and corporate bodies to issues facing people living with deafblindness to raise the public profile of deafblindness, which will in the long term assist with issues of resourcing and securing funds for services to promote the range of services available to educate the general community about deafblindness.

“Those wishing to discover more information on this topic should contact 01733 358100 (voice/text) or go to www.deafblind.org.uk.”