Sight Scotland and Sight Scotland Veterans - Pledge

Sight Scotland recognises people who have been traumatised through experiencing visual impairment can be helped to overcome this experience, not only with the right mental health support, but also through the right specialist support. This can be specialist support for visually impaired young people in education, inclusive workplaces or rehabilitation for people who have experienced sight loss. Sight Scotland Veterans works with veterans living with sight loss who often have a number of health conditions, which can include head injuries and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Too often visually impaired people who have experienced trauma are only put in contact with our services after points of crisis, when earlier support would have made a great difference. This is why we have welcomed initiatives such as the Trauma Training Plan, providing a clear and comprehensive strategy for securing a multi-agency approach to raise awareness of the impacts of trauma and the need to support children and adults who have experienced trauma. We are happy to endorse the National Trauma Training Programme Leadership Pledge because we recognise the need to encourage leadership teams in a wide range of services to ensure staff have appropriate opportunities and time to engage in training. We also believe that the wealth of expertise and experience which exists in the third sector should be drawn on in the provision of training, including relevant information in training materials, and in playing a role to encourage organisations and agencies to promote training. These are vital steps we need to take to achieve the aim of Scotland being a more trauma informed and trauma responsive nation.