best practice example cz - hyvnar

project „Experiences of Adult Education in Europe for blind or visually impaired people“

LLP Grundtvig partnership project

Good Practice example based on experiences from the Czech Republic

Martin Hyvnar, Centrum vizualizace a interaktivity vzdělávání, s.r.o.

The title: Visually impaired masseur named Peter

Brief summary:

Peter is now 39. At the age of 18 they discovered he had vision problems. During his studies at the School of agriculture, Systems of crop production, he visited an ophthalmologist. At that time he was already a holder of a driving licence for agricultural vehicles, but he needed to extend it to a licence for driving a truck. In order to start the driving school he needed to obtain a medical certificate issued by his ophthalmologist. That was the moment when his vision problems were discovered for the first time and he was told these might continue worsen over time. After he had left the school he worked for many different employers, and due to his visual and other health problems, most of the time these were only short-term job opportunities. His last job was at the automobile factory Autopal. But his sight had kept getting worse and for that reason he eventually had to leave this employment too. From his ophthalmologist he obtained a contact for a local branch of The United organization of the blind and partially sighted, where he received a necessary help and advice on how to cope with the situation. Including the resolution to his financial difficulties (claiming disability support pension) we had gradually got to the point where in 2011 Peter took part in training course at the Rehabilitation and retraining centre Dědina in Prague and started his career as a masseur.

Good practice example general information

This example of good practice took place in Nový Jičín as a part of the basic consulting services provided by Social counselling organization SONS ČR, and the counselling sessions with the client occurred between September 2010 and June 2011.

Detailed illustration of good practice example:

The first time I met Peter was in September 2010, when he came to our centre based on the recommendation from his ophthalmologist. He did not have any special requirements of help me to find a job kind. Rather he needed some information regarding the options that were available to him in order to solve the problems that occurred due to his visual impairment.

During the interview Peter told me he learned about his visual defect while visiting his ophthalmologist for basic check up in order to obtain medical certificate for a driving school. When asked whether he had been having troubles with the night vision, he confidently replied “NO”. The doctor then asked him to follow him to a darkened room and what happened next Peter described in these words: “I staggered around like a frog in a blender and on top of that I also knocked down a few chairs that were there.“

Peter finished his school successfully but he couldn’t find a stable employment and worked at different places such as a bakery or a dairy. Due to constantly worsening eyesight and scoliosis these were always only temporary job opportunities for 3 to 4 months after which he had to register at the Job centre. The longest employment he had was as a security guard for



the company Autopal. But he had to eventually leave this job too as his eyesight kept getting worse. “ In the end I was quite happy to leave, as walking around the area with a still growing traffic density during a day or at night wasn’t really pleasant experience and especially for the blind person working as a watchman, that’s just crazy!“

At the first meeting we discussed mainly the general issues related to the visual impairment, but also different social and other services that were available to him and the basic information on mobility aids. Because Peter was registered at the Job Centre as the job seeker and the social benefits were the only income he had at that time, we spent the following meetings discussing the issues regarding a disability support pension. At the end we got to matters related to job retraining. But before the start of the retraining program we needed to acquire some aid such as a Dictaphone and apply for grants to purchase a computer specifically designed for visually impaired people.

The most appealing to Peter was the retraining opportunity in the Rehabilitation and retraining centre Ďedina in Prague. Specifically the Blind and visually impaired masseur field. Retraining course for masseurs prepares the blind and visually impaired people to work in health facilities under the guidance of medical staff with a higher qualification. They then have the choice to work as employees for different fitness centres, but also as an independent contractors. The visually impaired masseurs are highly rated by the public in the Czech Republic, especially for the quality of the work done by them. In our country the position of masseur is still regarded as a traditional job suitable for the blind and partially sighted. The retraining courses for the blind carried out at Dědina have very high theoretical and practical quality level almost as high as the quality level of qualification at a high school. That is the reason the visually impaired masseurs are highly desirable employees.

We provided Peter with all basic information and the rest of matters, regarding the retraining, he negotiated with the local Job Centre that was covering the costs for the course. Before the beginning of the course at Dědina he dedicated lots of time to self-studying of fundamentals of human biology. All this time, he’s been receiving a lot of support from his parents that he currently lives with. “I knew from the start that I would really enjoy the job of a masseur and that it was going to be the right choice for me”, says Peter today.

In the spring 2011 Peter began the course for the visually impaired masseurs at the Rehabilitation centre Dědina in Prague. The six-month stay at Dědina helped Peter not only to build his career path but also to grow as a person. Suddenly he begun to see his problems in different light as he was surrounded by the blind people, who had been learning new things – to move around inside a building, learn to walk with a white cane, to cook and be self-sufficient and etc. He was the only participant with the ability to “see”. “That was the first time I met with the blind people and it was such a new experience for me. At first I had no idea how to approach them or how to help them. Thanks to this experience I started looking at my problem from a different angle. Before I used to feel very sorry for myself, but today I would rather slap my face for that,” he remembers. Peter also appreciates the warm family atmosphere that prevailed throughout the whole facility, helpful approach to clients from the staff and also friendliness among all residents. “These few months there was the most beautiful time of my life, I felt like I was at home!“, he adds.

At that time Peter was 35 and he found it really difficult to study at this age. Not only that, he had to gain much knowledge in such a small amount of time of 5 months and each subject had



to be completed by taking the final exam. The biggest challenge for him was to learn all Latin words for muscles, tendons and other body parts. “Sometimes I felt like my brain just wouldn’t take in more.“ But Peter managed to successfully overcome all these obstacles and even more. Thanks to his stay at Dědina he made lots of friends and has even stayed in touch with the facility staff. Also the Centre regularly sends him job offers for visually impaired masseurs.

After completing the course Peter worked for 3 months as a substitute masseur to his blind colleague, who had been incapable of work for a longer period of time. He also decided to start his own business. Together with his colleague they established their own studio and started offering massage services.

To set up and run the sheltered workshop Peter obtained a grant from the Job Centre. As the Social service association we provided him mainly with a law and employment advice services and helped him with the matters related to active labour market policy regarding the grants acquisition to set up and run the sheltered workshop. Based on the advice on how to proceed in this case he then handled all the related matters himself.

Since June 2013 the client has been in full-time employment as a massage therapist working in the Rehabilitation centre of Dr. Přemysl Norský in Nový Jičín. He is very happy at his current job. According to what he has said, in the future he would love to become a professional physiotherapist. This is the reason why he had applied for the distance studies at the Secondary medical school in Nový Jičín, but unfortunately he had to interrupt the studies due to being busy with his own business and starting a new job. However later he would like to continue and finish the school. Since the retraining course he has taken part in many other courses in massage techniques and continues running his own business along with his job at the rehabilitation centre.



Since 2010 Peter has been a member of the local branch of the United organization of the blind and visually impaired in Nový Jičín. As a masseur he joins us on recondition and rehabilitation stay programs, where physiotherapy takes place as the part of the whole program. Recently he’s started learning to walk with a white cane and exercising the spatial orientation. But beside his work he also enjoys photography. At present he is working for Orthopaedic and rehabilitation centre of Dr. Přemysl Norský at Jugoslávská 30, 741 01 Nový Jičín. Phone: 556 703 903.