Visual Activities and Mental Health Difficulties

Roger was enrolled in a ‘basic electronics’ class. Due to his schizophrenia, he had difficulty focusing in class. His thoughts would wander from the teacher and suddenly he would feel ‘lost’ in class and not able to follow the demonstrations. Because of this, he would continually interrupt the class to ask the teacher questions. His classmates were beginning to get impatient with him for continually disrupting the class, and his teacher was increasingly concerned for the health and safety of Roger and his peers, since Roger seemed to tune out from time to time and miss vital information. 

Following a discussion with him, Roger’s teacher allowed him to bring in a tape recorder to tape the class presentations and discussions. He was also assigned a “buddy”, a classmate who would sit next to him during class to point out what they were focusing on if Roger became lost. The teacher made herself available to Roger at a certain time each week to answer his questions and to double check his understanding of the essential safety elements. She also encouraged him to use his mobile phone to video some of her demonstrations.  Roger made a commitment to spend more time reading up his notes from previous sessions and he found this, together with the advance copy of the teacher’s notes, to be a real help in enabling him to prepare for the taught sessions.  

Remember, the experience of disability is highly individualised, and people with the same impairment may have very different needs when it comes to making adjustments to practice. It is really important to have a discussion with the disabled person themselves about what their particular needs – and solutions – might be.