**Psychosocial Adaptation to Visual Impairment**

**Psychosocial Adaptation to Visual Impairment**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.70269

#### Yukihiko Ueda Yukihiko Ueda Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

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92 Causes and Coping with Visual Impairment and Blindness

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Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70269

#### **Abstract**

Acquired visual impairment evoked several psychological reactions. A person's adaptation to these reactions and their associated characteristics such as degree of vision loss, membership of a specific demographic, and impact on personality had been investigated. Socio-environmental variables also had an impact on psychological adjustment, and adaptation to vision loss had been explained using psychoanalytic models and stage models. Previous research had thus developed adjustment models incorporating the variables of anxiety, depression, self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, acceptance of disability, attitudes toward blindness, and attributional style, among other influences. However, effective types of treatment based on these variables had not been empirically demonstrated. While grief work had been commonly used in intervention strategies, and there was now more information available about group counseling in this field, their evaluation had been insufficient. As an alternative, we implemented a structured group counseling program to decrease psychological distress in adults with visual impairment. The results indicated that participants who engaged in individual therapy in addition to group counseling showed decreased depression, fatigue, and confusion, and a significantly improved acceptance of their disability. The group counseling combined with individual cognitive therapy could be the effective tool to improve social influences and internal self of the person with visual impairment.

**Keywords:** visual impairment, rehabilitation, adaptation, group counseling, cognitive therapy
