THE FIRST training session for sensory awareness has been completed.
Wokingham Borough Council’s Sensory Needs Service (SNS) trained Flair, which provides communication support workers for some residents.
The two-hour training focused on providing support, promoting independence, and assisting with sight, dual sensory and hearing loss (D/deaf) guidance.
Tactics taught included speaking clearly – rephrasing, repeating, and clarifying words, writing down messages, pointing, gently tapping the hand for attention and other forms of tactile communication such as deaf-blind manual.
Navigation tactics included describing the environment around someone, such as uneven ground and upcoming hazards.
Executive member for adult social care and public health, Cllr Charles Margetts said: “Sensory needs can affect a person’s wellbeing with people feeling withdrawn and isolated from social interactivity, resulting in embarrassment and loss of independence.
“We want to provide our partners with efficient, effective and valuable training to enable their support workers to assist sensory needs residents in day-to-day activities.
“By doing so, residents will feel a sense of belonging, more included within society, while also promoting their independence.”
Across the country, one in six people experiences hearing loss and two million have sight loss.
The Sensory Needs Service will continue to train providers of sensory support.
It aims to build a pool of sensory support workers in the borough.
The session takes place in Bracknell Town Centre to make use of lifts, escalators, shops, toilets, coffee shops and wide-open spaces.
