Pathway to a specialist adviser?

Dougr1949

Hi All,
First time on here as I am looking for some advice. My Nephew who is 42 years of age and in a residential unit has very limited control of his movement. He is non verbal and due to circumstances has never learnt to use a Digibox. One thing he does is to communicate with his eyes. Since his Mum passed we are looking after aspects of his care and want to get him a new Smart TV. To give him greater independence as he does not have much I wonder whether his eye movement could be used to control the television. Any advice would be appreciated or a pathway to a specialist adviser, thank you.

Hannah_Alumni

Hello @Dougr1949

Welcome to the community. 

I just wanted to comment with my condolences. I hope you all have support around you? With your nephew, have you enquired with his GP about the support available for him? You could also go down the needs assessment route? They can help with equipment and home adaptations. 

forgoodnesssake

I'm not sure what a Digibox is but I assume you mean some sort of electronic communication aid.  You may know that now many people control these with their eyes (my son does) and so if you wanted to pursue this you would ask your nephew's GP for a referral to a speech and language therapist who knows about AAC (alternative and augmentative communication) more info here www.communicationmatters.org.uk)

However in terms of the TV it should also be possible to get some sort of eye gaze access method for him and so actually either through Social Services, or the GP or even by direct contact you should look for your local "Assistive Technology" department within, usually the local NHS rehabilitation service.  it is a bit of a postcode lottery as to how "local" such a service will be, but all health areas should be covered.  And they can have different names in different areas, which really helps, not!  Good luck

Dougr1949

Thank you very much, that is very useful.