Who Is Chief Nc Dsb Independent Living Services

This evening was Melaney Stein from the N Carolina Department of Health & Man Services Division of Services for the Blind (DSB). Melaney is 1 of two DSB social workers for all of Wake County. That's a lot of area for two people to cover! Melaney began every bit a social worker for the bullheaded on January 17th not long after her counterpart Christine Harrington began on January 3rd. She is originally from Louisiana but moved to Raleigh in 1984. In 1985 she began working at the Raleigh Lions Clinic where she worked for fifteen years. After that she began at DSB and held several other positions all in relation service to the blind as she moved into more managerial roles over time. Her desire to go out of management roles and back to individual one on one service lead her to accept the role as social worker at DSB where she is at present.

Her view of the DSB Independent Living Service Program is that they provide essentially iv types of service:

Independent Living Services – This is what she and Christine spend most of their fourth dimension doing. They have approximately 230 cases between them at the moment. These are people who need some sort of contained living service. They are too people who have low income or subsidy situations only it does non have to exist. They accept almost five calls per mean solar day for people in these situations. More than and more mutual is the situation where someone over the age of 65 is losing or has lost their vision due to macular degeneration or diabetes. In gild to provide services the bureau does need a recent medical report and does confirm the qualification based on vision assessment. The needs can be pretty much anything just often are related to Coin direction, home (cleaning) management, Grooming skills, Kitchen skills, fifty-fifty how to eat. Yous might be surprised at how many blind people will not eat in public. One of the Cary Lions, Larry Schlesinger, likewise works in the field and teaches classes for things like this. Melaney frequently refers her cases to him. Under this program there are times when she will exist able to make purchases of items to aid the customer such as a talking clock, for example, when the funds are available and there is a legitimate demand.
Medical Eye Program – This is a program that does have a financial qualification as well as a medical one. A person needs to be near poverty level to authorize. Information technology tin can be used in situations where a person needs surgery and has no medical insurance to cover it.
Eyeglass calls – When clients call who demand new eyeglasses and cannot afford them Melaney will oft turn to the local Lions Gild to seek assistance from us. One thing she noted was that every club has a different procedure so it can be a scrap difficult for her to know the all-time way frontwards merely she manages and about clubs (including Apex) are very accommodating. She is very thankful for that!
Cold calls – Sometimes people just call to get more data or to get assistance without a case. For example, Melaney is ofttimes called to aid fill out a Army camp Dogwood or VIP Fishing tournament application and she is always delighted to handle small things like that. In fact, information technology is Camp Dogwood application season now :-). She loves being an advocate for the blind when information technology comes to things like this.

The NC DSB does not receive any federal funding merely they do, of course, go state funding although it is express. In fact they accept already been instructed to stop purchasing items this year. All the same, good relationships with other organizations similar expanse Lions Clubs and other agencies enable them to get access to additional help by referrals. For instance, Melaney recently assisted one of her cases in filing the asking for eyeglass support from our gild and nosotros are treatment that now. Similarly, she requested that if we know of anyone who might be able to benefit from their other services we should refer them to the DSB. Nosotros can be a resource for each other going frontwards. Information technology was wonderful to larn some of the services that are available through the DSB then now we have a much better idea of what is offered and when it makes sense to make a referral.

If y'all would like more information y'all tin can bank check out the DSB Web site hither or contact Melaney direct at:

Melaney Stein
DSB Social Worker for the Blind, Wake Canton
220 Swinburne St., 3015A
P.O. Box 46833
Raleigh, NC 27690-2016

919-250-4690 (Role)

919-212-9210 (Fax)

Electronic mail: melaney.stein@dhhs.nc.gov