|
Community-Based Comprehensive Rehabilitation Programme
This programme was launched in 1996 at Aravind-Theni with support from Sight Savers International, UK to provide preventive, curative and rehabilitative services to the entire service area of Theni. House-to-house identification of eye problems and screening camps were organised at the panchayat level. Patients identified with eye problems were treated; many of them underwent cataract surgery. The incurably blind persons identified were rehabilitated through learned skills in orientation, mobility and activities of daily living.
The programme helps the blind return to work by teaching them a skill they can perform without sight or by providing financial support that enables them to become self-sufficient.
School Eye Health Screening Programme
This programme trains teachers to identify children with visual impairments. The ratio is one teacher per 100 children. The teachers are trained to measure visual acuity and to identify signs of squint and Vitamin A deficiency. They are also taught the anatomy and physiology of the eye. The trained teachers screen all the children and identify the visually impaired. An ophthalmic assistant then examines those selected by the teacher and refers those in whom the diagnosis is confirmed to the ophthalmologist. Finally, the ophthalmologist examines the affected children with the help of paramedical assistants and prescribes treatment.
Village Volunteers Programme (VVP)
Seventy percent of India's one billion people reside in rural areas. Ironically, eighty percent of the 10,000 ophthalmic surgeons in the country live in urban areas. The Village Volunteers Programme was established to reach out to rural residents.
Under this programme the volunteers of other NGOs already working in the villages are chosen to counsel, educate and motivate villagers who need cataract surgery to come forward for treatment. These volunteers receive training to identify cataract and are educated on the various methods of cataract surgery.
After training, the volunteers make house-to-house visits in their villages as a part of their programme. They also examine persons aged 40 and above to determine whether they have cataract. On average, a volunteer visits 100 houses each month and examines 100 persons in the age group above 40 years. They may identify 15 to 20 persons with cataract. Once a month an ophthalmic assistant from Aravind Eye Hospital visits the village on a date determined at the time of training. He examines and confirms the patients chosen for cataract surgery. Those patients are then brought to the base hospital for surgery.
|
