Walk with me, talk with me 
Why social care is so vital to deafblind people.
Scene 1 
Chris sits alone on his garden bench looking very isolated.
(Chris’s voice)
 “My name is Chris Farrow. I am 56 years old and I am deafblind. Outwardly you will look at me and think, he doesn’t look blind, doesn’t look deaf. When people look at me they see a normal functioning human being they don’t understand the difficulties I have to go though to achieve anything.” 
The actual losing your eyesight isn’t the hard part. It’s what’s associated with it, that’s the hard part…. not being able to make your own cup of team anymore. The indignity of not being able to make a piece of toast. Or asking your wife if you’ve put your underpants on the right way round. And so on, and so on, and so on. 	
“It’s the isolation that drives you into depression….It’s an awful, awful illness….  You won’t bath, you won’t shave, you won’t clean, you’re frightened to even answer the door. It’s endless, it’s endless. I use to get on my knees almost every night and pray to God to help me, to get out of this mess.”

Scene 2
Chris walks up the road with Nicola, his Communicator-guide. They chat as she guides him along the pavement.
(Chris’s voice)
 “I don’t suffer from that now because Nicola comes at least three days a week, plus I do work for Sense, plus the people I used to work with are starting to come around to see me. Someone came to see me yesterday for a few hours, you’re getting contact again. You’ve got things to talk about.”  
(Nicola’s voice)									 
“I see Chris three times a week, five hours to do the different things that Chris would like to do. Mainly shopping, especially in the winter when we can’t get out in the garden.”
“He’s got his independence back. Before he didn’t go anywhere, didn’t do anything, there was nowhere for him to go. Now he’ll ring up and say, tomorrow I want to do this, and I just plan it and off we go.”
Scene 3
Chris and Nicola arrive at the Post Office. Chris buys some things and chats to the woman on the till.
(Chris’s voice)
“How you doing Lisa?”
(Lisa’s voice)
“I’m fine darling, you?”
(Chris’s voice)
“Fine thanks love. How you getting on with your new house?”
(Nicola voiceover)
“He’s got his independence back. Before he didn’t go anywhere, didn’t do anything, there was nowhere for him to go. Now he’ll ring up and say, tomorrow I want to do this, and I just plan it and off we go.”

Scene 4
Megan Mann, Senior Practitioner in Acquired Deafblindness at Sense talks to camera: 
 “There’s no replacement really for the one-to-one support that most people need and want.”
“People need support to go to a hospital appointment, to the doctors, to go out shopping, it’s really doing the everyday things that everyone does, where communication and mobility is going to be an issue.”
“This is a very cost-effective service. For as little as two hours a week for an older person to get support, stops them deteriorating even further, maybe going down the mental health route. Losing that independence at home, not being able to cope, going into residential care. That becomes quite a costly route to go down.” 
Scene 5
Chris shopping in Morrisons with the support of Nicola. Goes up the aisles, helps to choose purchases, pays at the till.
Chris’s voice:										
With guiding you need someone who is very much dedicated, who can perceive in front, what the difficulties will be for you, by the time you get to them. 
“Most of the time it goes quite smooth. If you go to the supermarket on a regular basis, I’ve actually got quite a good memory, so I know what’s in an aisle. So I could quite often say to Nicola, `that’s where the paracetamol are, could you get me some?’ It’s just experience isn’t it?” 											
“When you’ve done an activity and enjoyed it, it’s been successful, It’s very much an enjoyable part of your life. You like to make the best of it.”

Scene 6
Chris talks directly to the camera: 
“It’s all right the government thinking of cutting back spending on people, but do they truly understand the consequences of what they’ll do to human beings? It’s horrendous…. 
“The cost of social care in this country pays dividends. It will cost a lot more if we don’t take it by the horns and supply social care. It will cost us a lot more – we’ll have institutions again. That’s what they used to do with people you know.”
“Everybody has the right to a reasonable life. Nobody deserves to be isolated. Nobody.”

Filmed and edited by Mike Pinches
Interviews: Colin Anderson
Sound: Mike Cocksedge
With thanks to Chris Farrow, Nicola Dye and Megan Mann
www.sense.org.uk