Low vision care in India: a time for action! & Issues which need to be considered (plenary lecture, the 9th International Congress on Low Vision, July 10, 2008, 8:00 AM, Montreal, Canada).
With a national population now estimated at 1.1 billion people (and growing!), it is often stated that India accounts for 1/3 of all blind and visually impaired individuals in this World! If this statement is correct, this means that there are 5-6 million visually impaired and blind individuals in India! Although certainly real progress is being made, one can reasonably ask, is the existing organizational structure designed to serve the needs of so large a number of people, and are the necessary care-providers available to provide for visual rehabilitation requirements of this very substantial cohort of affected patients? Both continuing growth and aging of the Indian population tend to challenge the capacity of that Nation to meet demands for ophthalmic services, as well as their ability to meet the visual rehabilitation requirements of this populace. Modern optometry is, in many ways, a nascent profession in India. In behalf of the large cohort of visually impaired patients, I argue that a difference can be made through effective inter-professional cooperation between emerging modern optometry and more developed ophthalmology! I hope to see an increasing role for optometry in the provision of care for the visually impaired and blind in coming years. Here, I discuss a number of issues pertinent to needs of the blind and visually impaired population, as well as means for enhancing applicable rehabilitation services.
Enoch
Jay M
JM
School of Optometry, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-2020, USA. jmenoch@berkeley.edu
D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D009907:Optometry / Q000193:education / Q000639:trends; D019035:Rural Health Services; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*