The University of Auckland School of Optometry and Vision Science (SOVS) has received two significant donations in support of its Community Spectacle Scheme, ensuring more New Zealanders can access glasses.
Read the full story in the October 2021 edition of NZ Optics.
A Community Spectacle Scheme recently launched by the University of Auckland is helping make eye care more accessible to all New Zealanders.
Read the full story here.
The School of Optometry and Vision Science’s George Cox Community Spectacle Scheme was established in 2021 to support community eye health research and teaching projects.
The Scheme will enable us to provide more comprehensive care, by eliminating the prohibitive cost many people face to accessing spectacles.
We will closely monitor and evaluate the scheme and assess the impact of improving access to spectacles.
In future, we also aim to explore the economics and financing of spectacles as part of the evidence base to make spectacles more accessible for all New Zealanders in the most sustainable way.
In July 2021, the Community Eye Health research team commenced a pilot study for a population-based eye health survey. The pilot, recruiting residents in the Auckland suburbs of Glen Innes, Panmure and Ōrākei, offered full eye examinations to people identified with distance or near vision impairment.
If people then required glasses, we were able to provide them, free of charge, thanks to the Community Spectacle scheme.
The SOVS Community Spectacle Scheme has been made possible by the generous support of Helen Blake, Barbara Blake and Essilor.
International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, September 2021
By Jacqueline Ramke and Hugh Bassett, International Centre for Eye Health
Globally, there are an estimated 370 million Indigenous people, living in 90 countries. Marginalisation, displacement and institutional racism has left Indigenous people across the world with poorer health and social outcomes compared with non-Indigenous people, including dying younger, having higher rates of infant mortality and poverty, and lower educational attainment…
Inequity in eye health is also evident with high income countries failing to ensure Indigenous populations have equitable access to eye care service. A recent scoping review from a team at the University of Auckland and the International Centre for Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine also shows limited evidence that high-income countries are actively tackling this lack of access.
Read the full blog post on the IAPB website.
Veeran Morar and Jaymie Rodgers during the pilot eye health survey in Glen Innes, Auckland, 2021.
Auckland University researchers have conducted a pilot eye health survey and community eye exams in east-central Auckland, uncovering significant unmet need and serious eye disorders, including retinal tears and severe cataracts.
Read the full story in the September 2021 issue of NZ Optics.