Brien Holden Vision Institute (BHVI) has collaborated with the Vision Cooperative Research Centre (Vision CRC) to deliver a practical and simple set of approaches that health services can use to help improve eye care for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with whom they work.
Vision loss is a significant problem within Australia’s indigenous population. Diabetes related blindness in Aboriginal Australians is 14 times higher than in non-Indigenous populations.1 Ninety-four per cent of all vision loss in Aboriginal communities is preventable or treatable.1
Building on current evidence and guidelines for Indigenous eye care for Aboriginal Australians, the team worked collaboratively with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to identify the most practical and workable solutions to improve access and uptake of eye care in ‘real-life’ settings.
According to BHVI, the solutions and approaches delivered have been shown, in working demonstration, to be practical, translatable and scalable.
One of the leading solutions developed during the project is the Eye and Vision Care Toolkit, which includes:
• Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) tools
• Regional eye care planning tools
• Education and training resources to aid skill levels
• Guidance on understanding patient and community perspectives
For further information about the project can be viewed at Vision for Every Australian, Everywhere: Eye care for Indigenous Australia: www.brienholdenvision.org/visioncrc/vision_for_australia.pdf
The toolkit can be accessed at: academy.brienholdenvision.org/browse/resources/courses/eye-toolkit
Reference:
1: Taylor, HR, J Xie, S Fox, RA Dunn, AL Arnold and JE Keeffe. ‘The Prevalence and Causes of Vision Loss in Indigenous Australians: The National Indigenous Eye Health Survey’. Medical Journal of Australia 192, (2010): 312–318.
