Special Olympics, Lions Clubs International Launch Global Vision Care Curriculum
For many years, anecdotal evidence from our clinical advisers in Healthy Athletes® has indicated that people with intellectual disabilities do not receive regular or appropriate vision care. Special Olympics research further indicates that people with intellectual disabilities were falling behind by uncovering evidence of the prevalence of treatable conditions, length of time since last eye exam, and high frequency of inappropriate prescriptions.
 |
In 2003, an international panel of public health experts decided to tackle this problem. A committee of optometrists, ophthalmologists, physicians and a representative from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention convened to develop the first drafts of the now completed Global Vision Care Curriculum. The panel - led by Dr. Sandra Block from the Illinois College of Optometry - consisted of 15 persons, representing the United Kingdom, Brazil, Philippines, China and the United States. The committee worked to develop a curriculum which would educate vision care providers to be better prepared, more current on the latest techniques available, and more comfortable working with people with intellectual disabilities.
The curriculum represents state-of-the-art science and clinical practice guidelines for providing quality diagnostic and vision care services for people with intellectual disabilities and is the only global vision curriculum focused on this population. Further, it uniquely brings in focus issues of how people with intellectual disabilities deserve to be treated and involved in their own health care decisions and in their own words.
A student version of the curriculum will be implemented in vision care institutions, universities and optometry schools, ophthalmological residencies, etc. There is also a professional version that will be used for continuing education credits for practicing professionals.
Special Olympics initially will distribute the curriculum to optometrists and ophthalmologists in more than 43 countries who serve as local Clinical Directors for the Special Olympics-Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes® program. The Global Vision Care Curriculum is available on DVD in both English and Mandarin and is due to be translated into Arabic, French, Spanish and Portuguese during the subsequent translation phase. For more information or a free copy please visit http://www.specialolympics.org/openingeyes or contact Randy Borntrager at rdease@specialolympics.org.
>> Return to Healthy Athletes Update, Winter 2006
|
