Each day 100 people start to lose their sight, but help for many of them is too little and too late, according to researchers.

A Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) study "Changing the way we think about blindness", launched on Tuesday, studied over 1,000 adults with sight problems.

It found that although public expectations of services to help the blind and partially sighted were high, in reality many people receive little help.

One in five people who develop sight problems can wait more than a year for initial help and find themselves struggling alone without support services or the skills they need to cope with daily living.

The report also found:

• Only 9% had been offered training to help them cope with daily living tasks
• Just 12% were given lessons in how to use a cane to help them get around
• Only 2% were given counselling about their loss of sight
• Nearly 27% of people with sight problems did not feel confident in their own neighbourhood
• And 20% of those aged over 75 had not been outside, not even in their own garden, the week before the survey.

Ian Bruce, chief executive of the RNIB, said people needed as much help as possible to keep them independent.

"This picture is unnecessarily bleak. People can and should be able to stay fully independent when they lose their sight.

The RNIB is calling for more help for people with sight problems

"Clearly local services need an urgent injection of resource to cope with the growing numbers of older people with sight problems.

"People should be getting mobility training and rehabilitation at an early stage so that their sight loss doesn't mean loss of independence."

Mr Bruce said that eye sight problems needed to pushed higher up the agenda and given more resources to aid detection.