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Listen to this programmeFactsheet of this programmeTranscript of this programme Print this page FactsheetABUSE OF BLIND AND PARTIALLY-SIGHTED PEOPLEA survey conducted by the charity Action for Blind People suggests that 20,000 blind and partially sighted people are physically abused everyday and 180,00 are verbally attacked ever week – figures far higher than previously thought. David Aldwinckle, services support manager for Action for Blind People, joins Peter to discuss the findings and respond to questions raised about the figures, and the negative effects they may have on blind people. Our reporter Mani Djazmi went out to visit three visually impaired people who have all been the victims of physical or verbal abuse, including Denise Jarrett in Birmingham. Peter also speaks to John Wellsman, a consultant on visual impairment, and a member of Surrey Police's independent advisory group, who challenges the figures. CONTACTS Action For Blind People 14-16 Verney Road London SE16 3DZ Tel: 0800 915 4666 (info & advice) 0800 915 4666 . Registered charity with national cover that provides practical support in the areas of housing, holidays, information, employment and training, cash grants and welfare rights for blind and partially-sighted people. Leaflets and booklets are available. NEW TREATMENT FOR AGE RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION The London Project to Cure Blindness is an investigation into the use of stem-cells to replace the damaged cells at the back of the eye; at the moment, there is no cure for so-called dry AMD, and only a very partial one for wet AMD. Professor Pete Coffey of the institute of ophthalmology at University College, London, is directing the project, and he joins Peter in the studio. ABOUT AMD The macula is located at the back of the eye at the centre of the retina. It enables us to see what's directly in front of us and allows us to see fine detail. It plays a vital role in helping people to read, write and drive, and perform other detailed tasks. It also enables us to recognise faces and see colour. Different types of AMD There are two types of AMD, 'dry' and 'wet': Dry AMD is the commonest form of the condition. Cells in the retina fail to function properly as a person gets older. The cells don't take in enough vital nutrients and fail to clear by-products of cell functioning. This causes tiny abnormal deposits, called drusen, to be left under the retina, making it uneven. In time, retinal cells degenerate and die causing sight loss. This occurs very gradually over many years. Currently, there's no treatment for this type of AMD, although there are vision aids available that can help people to maximise the use of their residual sight. Wet AMD accounts for 10 to 15 per cent of cases. It often develops quickly and is also known as 'neovascular AMD' because it involves the growth of new blood vessels behind the retina. These new blood vessels are very fragile and so may leak fluid or blood. This results in scarring that causes rapid visual loss. Fortunately, new treatments mean it's possible to treat the majority of cases. CAUSES It is unclear what causes AMD. It becomes more likely as a person ages because, over time, the cells in the macula become damaged and worn out. Both eyes are usually affected, although one eye may be affected before the other. The good eye usually compensates for the affected eye and for many years this can disguise the fact that there’s a problem. There's no pain or redness of the eyes. Because it's central vision that's affected, patients retain some residual vision, but this is at the periphery of their field of vision where images aren't in focus. Any activity that requires detailed, clear vision is compromised, and in the late stages of the disease sight loss is so severe that patients are offered registration as partially sighted or blind. TREATMENT Currently, there is no medical treatment for dry AMD. However, not smoking and eating a healthy diet may help to slow the rate of deterioration. Additional lighting and magnifiers can help those with dry AMD to make better use of their residual sight. Medical breakthroughs in the treatment of wet AMD mean that, in most cases, treatments can prevent further visual loss, and in some cases restore partial sight. There are three types of treatment for wet AMD: · Photocoagulation uses a hot laser to seal leaking blood vessels, but can only be used in a minority of cases where the leakage is not directly in the centre of the macula. · Photodynamic therapy (also known as PDT) uses a cold laser to seal leaking blood vessels. This involves injecting a drug that reaches and coats the abnormal blood vessels via the blood stream. The drug is then activated by shining a light at the coated blood vessels and it destroys them. · Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) treatments target a protein involved in the formation of new blood vessels. High levels of VEGF can cause proliferation of blood vessels and fluid leakage. The drugs are injected under the macula. The number of injections varies. In trials the injections were given either every four or every six weeks, but in practice clinicians have to decide on the most appropriate treatment regime based on their assessment of the patient's response to the drugs. Anti-VEGF treatments have been shown to halt sight loss and in some cases restore it. One type of anti-VEGF treatment is currently licensed in the UK and most treatment is private. Patient groups are campaigning for treatment to be made available on the NHS. To find out if an anti-VEGF treatment would help your condition, talk to your eye specialist. CONTACTS London Project to Cure Blindness University College London 11-43 Bath Street London EC1V 9EL The London Project to Cure Blindness aims to prevent blindness, restore sight and ultimately improve quality of life for Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients within 5 years from the initiation of the research programme. By replacing the diseased support cells at the back of the eye affected in AMD with human stem cells we aim to repair and regenerate the diseased eye, thereby giving patients back the gift of sight. University College London The Macular Disease Society PO Box 1870 Andover SP10 9AD Tel: 0845 241 2041 The Macular Disease Society is a self-help society for those diagnosed with any of the eye conditions encompassed by the overall name of Macular Disease. The Society is dedicated to providing information and practical support so that those with the condition may make the most of their remaining vision. GENERAL CONTACTS RNIB 105 Judd Street London WC1H 9NE Helpline: 0845 766 9999 Tel: 0207 388 1266 (switchboard/overseas callers) Web: The RNIB provides information, support and advice for anyone with a serious sight problem. They not only provide Braille, Talking Books and computer training, but imaginative and practical solutions to everyday challenges. The RNIB campaigns to change society's attitudes, actions and assumptions, so that people with sight problems can enjoy the same rights, freedoms and responsibilities as fully sighted people. They also fund pioneering research into preventing and treating eye disease and promote eye health by running public health awareness campaigns. HENSHAWS SOCIETY FOR BLIND PEOPLE (HSBP) John Derby House 88-92 Talbot Road Old Trafford Manchester M16 0GS Tel: 0161 872 1234 Email: info@hsbp.co.uk Web: Henshaws provides a wide range of services for people who have sight difficulties. They aim to enable visually impaired people of all ages to maximise their independence and enjoy a high quality of life. They have centres in: Harrogate, Knaresborough, Liverpool, Llandudno, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Salford, Southport and Trafford. THE GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND ASSOCIATION (GDBA) Burghfield Common Reading RG7 3YG Tel: 0118 983 5555 Email: guidedogs@guidedogs.org.uk Web: The GDBA’s mission is to provide guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services that meet the needs of blind and partially sighted people. ACTION FOR BLIND PEOPLE 14-16 Verney Road London SE16 3DZ Tel: 0800 915 4666 (info & advice) Web: Registered charity with national cover that provides practical support in the areas of housing, holidays, information, employment and training, cash grants and welfare rights for blind and partially-sighted people. Leaflets and booklets are available. NATIONAL LEAGUE OF THE BLIND AND DISABLED Central Office Swinton House 324 Grays Inn Road London WC1X 8DD Tel: 020 7837 6103 Textphone: 020 7837 6103 National League of the Blind and Disabled is a registered trade union and is involved in all issues regarding the employment of blind and disabled people in the UK. NATIONAL LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND (NLB) Far Cromwell Road Bredbury Stockport SK6 2SG RNIB Customer Services on 0845 762 6843 Email: cservices@rnib.org.uk Web: The NLB is a registered charity which helps visually impaired people throughout the country continue to enjoy the same access to the world of reading as people who are fully sighted. Trustees from the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) and the National Library for the Blind (NLB) have agreed to merge the library services of both charities as of 1 January 2007, creating the new RNIB National Library Service. EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION DISABILITY HELPLINE (England) FREEPOST MID02164 Stratford upon Avon CV37 9BR Tel: 08457 622 633 Textphone: 08457 622 644 Fax: 08457 778 878 Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9:00 am-5:00 pm; Wed 8:00 am-8:00 pm. Enquiry: englandhelpline2@equalityhumanrights.com Equality and Human Rights Commission Helpline Wales Freepost RRLR-UEYB-UYZL 1st Floor 3 Callaghan Square Cardiff CF10 5BT 0845 604 8810 - Wales main number 0845 604 8820 - Wales textphone 0845 604 8830 - Wales fax 9:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday to Friday (an out-of-hours service will start running soon) Enquiry: waleshelpline@equalityhumanrights.com Equality and Human Rights Commission Helpline Scotland Freepost RRLL-GYLB-UJTA The Optima Building 58 Robertson Street Glasgow G2 8DU 0845 604 5510 - Scotland Main 0845 604 5520 - Scotland Textphone 0845 604 5530 - Scotland – Fax 9:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday to Friday (an out-of-hours service will start running soon) Enquiry: scotlandhelpline@equalityhumanrights.com DISABLED LIVING FOUNDATION 380-384 Harrow Road London W9 2HU Tel: 0845 130 9177 Web: The Disabled Living Foundation provide information and advice on disability equipment. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for external websites General contacts Back to top TranscriptIN TOUCHTX: 15.01.08 2040-2100 PRESENTER: PETER WHITE PRODUCER: CHERYL GABRIEL White Good evening. Twenty thousand blind people physically abused everyday - that's the startling conclusion of a survey just out. So a reflection of so-called hate crimes against disabled people or alarmist publicity grabbing figures more likely to frighten than warn? We'll be debating the issues in a moment. And we'll be hearing about the latest progress on the treatment of Macular Disease, which could one day make the controversial drug treatments, that we've talked about a lot on the programme, redundant. Well we've all heard about cases of abuse and violence against blind people but just how common are they and are we seeing a rising trend? Shocking figures, just published by the charity Action for Blind People, suggests that the incidence is far higher than anyone thought, certainly than I thought. Twenty thousand blind and partially sighted people physically abused everyday, 180,000 visually impaired people attacked verbally in one week - figures, we're told, four times as high as those experienced by sighted people. So how do we know and what do these figures mean? Well David Aldwinckle is services support manager for Action for Blind People, who commissioned the report, he's visually impaired himself and he's with me. David, I mean first of all, the word shocking and startling are overused, although not on this programme, but I mean these really aren't they? Aldwinckle These really quite appalling figures Peter. We were absolutely astounded to receive these results from the survey, so much so that we actually returned the figures to be checked, to be double checked. White So you didn't believe them? Aldwinckle Well it was a question of we didn't actually - we didn't expect the scale of response that we actually received, so we had to return them to make sure that they really did add up. White So how were the figures arrived at? Aldwinckle Well we worked with a market research company, a reputable one called Tick Box who've worked with a number of other leading charities to do similar sort of research. And according to the industry standard for a niche market like ours we should be gathering information from around 100 visually impaired people against a control of a 1,000 sighted people. So we commissioned the organisation to carry out the research and we also put the questionnaire onto our own website. White But it is a small sample isn't it - a 100 is a relatively small number of people? Aldwinckle Well we actually at the end of the survey had responses from 199 visually impaired people and just under 2,000 sighted people and according to the industry standard for this kind of thing that's an accurate figure to extrapolate against the population of visually impaired people in this country. White Okay, because this is where it really gets scary, this is where you say you get those figures from because basically if 180,000 visually impaired people are verbally abused every week it'll only take 10 weeks for every visually impaired person in the country - even if you take the highest figure of two million - to be verbally abused. Adlwinkle Well I mean on a very basic reading then yes, that's correct but if you look at the figures further through the survey about people receiving regular abuse then those figures there'll be a diminishing return on those figures, so it won't technically mean that every single visually impaired person will be abused, it may be that one person is abused significantly more than anybody else. White Right, now you talk of physical and verbal abuse, so what are we talking about here, I mean is that just someone calling you a blind bastard or something worse? Aldwinckle Well it goes through an entire range. We were purposely not prescriptive about what the definition of physical or verbal abuse would be, we thought long and hard about it and we came to the conclusion that most people tend to know when something is accidental or is done without malice and if you ask them whether they've been abused they tend to give you a fairly accurate response. Now the examples that we actually received from a couple of focus groups that followed on from our initial findings gave us examples of people being accosted and having their white canes taken off them and then hit over the head with the cane. Examples of people having faeces put through their letterbox, bricks and stones thrown at them, air rifles shot at them, people shouting at them in the street, people accusing partially sighted gentlemen of not actually being blind although he was carrying a cane but all sorts and really quite shocking. White It is shocking. Well I'm also joined by our reporter Mani Djazmi. Mani, you've been looking more closely into this and one or two of the cases that we're talking about, tell us what you've found out. Djazmi Well I spoke to three visually impaired people who've experienced abuse - physically and verbally - two of them have been guided into the middle of the road and left there, another gentleman was told to cross while the traffic was obviously flowing past him still and one other gentlemen was actually told by a group of what he thought to be teenagers that they were going to beat him up and he was actually rescued by another group of youngsters. Someone who's actually had to change her life circumstances in an effort to get away from the abuse that she's suffering is Denise Jarrett from Birmingham. She's moving house and she's moving from the north of Birmingham, where she lives at the moment, all the way to the south and quite a long way from her network of family and friends. Her experiences began with eggs being thrown at her house but as she explained to me things quickly escalated. Jarrett It moved from eggs to the window to stones being thrown at me and then bricks being thrown at me. The stones used to hit me usually on my arm or my leg and the bricks - I've had a brick hit me on my leg and I've also had a brick just go straight past my face. And then the last straw was a football kicked in my face and that's when I knew I was really being targeted because of my partial sight because I heard one of the youths deliberately say to the other one - Kick the ball in that blind bat's face! Djazmi Why do you think they appear to be targeting you like this? Jarrett Simply because I've low vision and they know that I can't identify them. Whenever I've got my brother with me or a family friend or my son it doesn't happen, it only happens when I'm alone. I've phoned the police on several occasions, the first time I phoned the police they actually turned up three days later and when I explained what was happening they said oh well can you identify them. I said well no because I'm low vision. Oh well if you can't identify them don't waste our time. Djazmi They used that - they used the phrase wasting our time? Jarrett Wasting our time, yeah. White It's a very disturbing response from the police, on the face of it there Mani, what's the police's side of the story? Djazmi Well West Midlands Police have sent us this statement, it says: West Midlands Police is committed to reducing crime and making its communities feel safer. The organisation does not discriminate against crime victims on the grounds of disability including short sightedness, in fact we would recognise and do our best to help more vulnerable members of the public. White Well that's fine as far as it goes but it still leaves this issue of not being able to identify an attacker. So I mean is there any point in contacting the police regardless of their response time if that's what they're going to say? Djazmi Well I've been to see Ian Gallihawk, who's the chief inspector of Bromley Police Station in South London. He's also responsible for Bromley's safer neighbourhood teams. Gallihawk We have CCTV systems, we can appeal for witnesses, we can speak to people, we can gather community intelligence and community information through the safer neighbourhood teams. That's not an exhaustive list of everything that we can do but the fact that the person who's been assaulted can't describe the assailant is no reason not to tell us about it. In the sort of circumstances you're relating to me where somebody has been the victim of a sustained series of assaults that's something where we absolutely certainly would follow up. I like to think that we would respond to that faster than three days. No way would that be considered a waste of police time, it goes without saying that somebody who can't see isn't going to be able to give a description of a victim. So the message that I think I'd like to give to members of the blind and partially sighted community is this isn't cause for panic and fear amongst the community, it's a case of should this happen to you, then we the police will assist you to the best of our ability, we'll do all that we can for you and we will provide you with a service. White That's Ian Gallihawk talking there to Mani Djazmi. And Mani thanks very much. Well as I say people are shocked by these figures but not always for the same reasons. We've heard from John and Jan Wellsman who are questioning the figures and the negative effects that they might have on blind people and attitudes to them. John is visually impaired himself, a consultant on visual impairment and a member of Surrey Police's independent advisory group and he joins us from Guildford. John, what is it about these figures that you're questioning really? Wellsman Some of the things that I'm questioning have been covered already and I don't want to take away for a moment the fear and the anxiety and the upset of being attacked or you're feeling you're being attacked as a visually impaired person. But having done a degree in psychology and done a bit of statistical analysis again I would question the statistics primarily in saying that 20,000 people a day is an astronomical number. Now having spoken to my police colleagues, even in terms of daily reported crime in terms of personal injury or hate crime, that's way, way above, as you said, right at the top of the programme, the average for the average population, given relative statistics. And I fear, as Ian's also said, that it could generate an immense amount of anxiety in the visual impaired population. In Surrey here we're very lucky that we have a low crime rate altogether ... White Well I was going to say leafy Surrey might be a bit different from the rougher bits of Birmingham where Denise lives or Manchester or Liverpool or Glasgow or Southampton. Wellsman That's right and we work very closely with the police, both Jan and myself, work very closely with the police to encourage them and encourage visually impaired people to actually be realistic about the likelihood of being attacked. And I do wonder then if visually impaired people feel they're being abused whether they're misappropriating some of the actions against them, when we're talking about some of the more minor things, when you hear people shouting abuse, when you think that you're going to be in trouble, it's very easy. And I'll give you an example: yesterday I was walking home through leafy Surrey, as I do, and someone was walking 12 paces behind me all the way home and that just made me feel very uneasy and very anxious about my situation. White Let's deal with this thing about the figures David. I mean you said, of course there'll be some people who have repeated cases of abuse or violence against them and they will show up in the numbers, so that therefore someone like Denise is obviously having repeated offences but if you then extrapolate doesn't that give a completely false impression? Aldwinckle I don't think it gives a false impression. There's always going to be questions over statistics. In our view this survey was - and the objective of it - was to provide a snapshot of the situation that people are facing. We're asking people the questions we've extrapolated against industry recognised figures really and this was never designed to be a definitive piece of research. We'd be very happy to talk to people about taking this further and getting better ... White But you have headlined it 20,000 people attacked everyday, does rather scream at you doesn't it? Aldwinckle But that's what our figures show us and we can't get away from that. If the number of people that we surveyed is accepted as a reasonable standard for extrapolating and getting a representative sample and that's the figures that we end up with at the other end ... Wellsman But I have to say though that I feel from reading the information that I got from Action for Blind People that there's a slightly cynical approach to this and it's encouraging agencies like the police forces to come and actually do visual impairment awareness training and actually train officers to be more aware about visually impaired people in the community. That's a separate issue from the whole issue of sending a marketing company out and actually asking questions and maybe asking a group of people in specific areas where crime rates are higher to the whole idea of visual impairment awareness which is valid and is needed but is not a great vehicle for saying that oh 20,000 visually impaired people are attacked everyday, I think that's sort of - a bit disingenuous to be honest. White David Aldwinckle, the response to that is quite a serious allegation but we do now that the charities business is very competitive at the moment, is there a bit of headline grabbing and as John is implying you wanting to get training which is one of the things you offer? Aldwinckle First of all John makes a couple of assumptions there that we may be have hand picked people in particular areas of crime, the research company randomised a selection and adhere to all of the general requirements of such activities. Going into the second point about the visual awareness training, of course we offer visual awareness training but we're not the only organisation that does. When we got the results we were clearly shocked and as we've said before we sent them back and we got them - we got the numbers crunched again, they came back and there were still the same result and we thought right, actually what can we do about this and looking at it broadly it's an issue within society and the way to address issues in society is with training and with support to make sure that services and the relevant authorities are appropriately equipped. Wellsman Which I wholly agree with you David, I think in my work with Surrey Police and other people working - visually impaired people working in police forces it's something we need to look at and we do need to encourage visually impaired people to come forward if they feel vulnerable and certainly Surrey Police will respond to that quite positively. White We'll have to leave it there but we'll be very, very interested to know what people feel, has this been exaggerated or does this actually chime with the experiences you're having. We'll be giving you contact details at the end of the programme. David Aldwinckle, John Wellsman thank you both very much indeed. Now what's happening with the potentially exciting project we heard about six months ago which could eventually replace drug therapies as treatment for Age Related Macular Disease, that's the largest cause of blindness amongst over 65s in this country? Well the London Project to Cure Blindness is an investigation into the use of stem cells to replace damaged cells at the back of the eye. At the moment there's no cure for so-called dry AMD and only a very partial one for wet AMD. Professor Peter Coffey of the Institute of Ophthalmology at the University College London is directing the project and he joins me now. Professor Coffey, first of all, what stage have you reached and have you proved yet that you're on the right track? Coffey The project is meant to run for five years, so we're nine months through the programme at the moment and I can say the advancements we've made are considerable, even in that short period. White So what have you - what do you know now that you didn't know then? Coffey We've done two further clinical trials and I must say the stem transplants will not happen for another three years. What we're looking at is proof of concepts in patients with dry and also Macular Dystrophy, so dry Age Related Macular Degeneration and Macular Dystrophy. And two clinical trials were initiated following the launch of the project in June and five patients have now undergone transplantation of their own cells for dry Age Related Macular Degeneration and five patients with Macular Dystrophy have also undergone the same type of operation. We can say that we're getting similar success in the dry patients as we did in the wet patients. The success unfortunately in the Macular Dystrophy group is not as good but that's because using the patient's own cells in Macular Dystrophy isn't appropriate, most Macular Dystrophy patients suffer from type of a genetic disorder so every single cell in that patient's eye is affected. So that's why unfortunately that result wasn't as good. White But you still feel that you're on the right track and you've proved the theory anyway? Coffey We've proved the concept which is if you use the cells can you transplant those cells under the Macular in these patient groups and we can. White Now tomorrow is a very big day for you isn't it financially? Coffey Financially tomorrow is a big day Peter, it is indeed. I was tasked by the donor who gave the first amount of money to try and find equal and matching funds to his donation, which was £4 million. So the total project does need £8 million. That sounds expensive but we are producing a clinical therapy. So we're not a pharmaceutical company, so clearly we have to go out and find those funds and in this case tomorrow's event is to try and approach organisations, philanthropic - banks, believe it or not who have philanthropic arms to them - and show them what the project is doing and how quickly we're advancing. White You've also just launched a website I think, what's the significance of that? Coffey The website is to show basically the outside world where the project is, what it's doing and what its findings are, to make that as freely available and quickly as available to the rest of the world. White Just finally and we pride ourselves on being realistic on this programme, just for people listening for whom this is crucial when can we expect, assuming you get the money, treatments that will make a real difference to Macular Disease? Coffey The first trial is still online but the trial is already filled in terms of the patients who will go on to that trial, so please do not contact Moorfields Eye Hospital, they will not be taking patients, volunteers on it. We aim to go into the first 10 patient stem cell trial in three years. White And - so that will be real people? Coffey That will be real people having real treatment. White Professor Pete Coffey thank you very much indeed. That's it for today but as always we welcome your comments and your queries, you can call us on 0800 044 044 or you can e-mail us at the programme at our website. You can also download a podcast of today's programme as from tomorrow. That's it from me Peter White, my producer Cheryl Gabriel and the rest of the team goodbye. Back to top |
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