Spiritual care for deafblind people
 Norwich couple Doreen and Geoff Wadham have been helping to produce a pastoral and spiritual development programme for Deafblind people.
Working with charity Deafblind UK, based in Peterborough, the couple have been working on a document to help people such as faith leaders, care workers and pastoral support workers gain a better understanding of different religions, culture and social background across the UK.
“One of the key issues was recognition that no interfaith work has been done with dual sensory impaired people,” said Geoff. “Work within community cohesion and interfaith relations is not easily accessible to dual sensory and deafblind people.
“An action plan was set up and we have since worked upon this to ensure that deafblind people from all communities are brought together to share their faith and culture.
“We envisage a bigger network which will ultimately result in many more deafblind people, and those with single sensory loss, being able to develop their spirituality and fully access their faith communities,” said Geoff.
 Plans for 2006 include: a conference looking specifically at older people with sensory loss; meetings with new people who have taken on the role of disability officers in the UK; and awareness programmes within schools, colleges and hospitals.
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Reproduced from the Network Norfolk website. Used with permission.