Services for blind seniors would support independent living

Although the degenerative effects of aging, such as losing hearing or eyesight, can come with irreversible challenges, legislators would like to provide extra help for seniors who are struggling with the onset of vision loss.

HF2012, sponsored by Rep. Jim Knoblach (R-St. Cloud), would appropriate $1 million in both Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017 to the Department of Employment and Economic Development to provide training services for seniors who are either currently, or will be going blind. Training services would promote independent living skills, and allow seniors to continue to live independently in their homes longer.

Rep. Jim Knoblach

The House Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance Committee tabled the bill Monday for further consideration of its addition in another. A companion, SF1595, sponsored by Sen. D. Scott Dibble (DFL-Mpls), awaits action by the Senate Finance Committee.

“Blindness for senior citizens is becoming an increasing problem,” Knoblach said, noting that Minnesota’s senior population, as a whole, is set to increase dramatically in the coming decade.

Knoblach said the additional funding would help bolster currently offered state services, and would be poised to help many seniors procure a better quality of life.

“We all know people who have been placed in nursing homes [because of blindness] only because they did not know how to live independently any longer after they have lost their sight; this is wrong and will continue to happen until we take action,” said Jennifer Dunnam, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota.

“The decision to move from a home to a nursing facility is too often made without knowledge or hope, but both knowledge and hope can be imparted by training and guidance from those who teach the skills and techniques that allow a blind person to live independently,” she said.