Eye health training van gets $50,000 boost

The van, which will be based in Western Australia’s Pilbara region and is part of the Lions Outback Vision Outreach Eye Health program, will serve as a mobile training base. It’s hoped this will help provide more opportunities for eye health training, education and capacity building for health workers, GPs and Aboriginal liaison officers in the 502,000 km² area.Dr Angus Turner, an acadic from the University of Western Australia who established Lions Outback Vision, said the training of GPs was extrely valuable as a significant proportion of eye health issues could be prevented if they were caught at an early stage.“These community champions for eye health are the core of the Lions Outback Vision model of care,” he said.“A constant need for improved education, awareness and capacity building of health workers is required to address health issues such as diabetic managent where early intervention, education and regular monitoring can reduce the incidence of vision related impacts.”{{image2-a:c-w:550}}The $50,000 donation came courtesy of Quadrant Energy and Santos, joint venture partners in the region’s Devil Creek Gas Plant.Quadrant Energy director of government and public affairs David Parker, said managent is “pleased that the Devil Creek Gas Plant joint venture partners are able to contribute to local community eye health improvent in the Pilbara.”According to Lions Outback Vision, compared with the general population Indigenous Australians suffer from 3x the level of blindness, are 12x more likely to have cataract-related blindness and are 14x more likely to have diabetes-related blindness. Additionally, despite the fact most vision loss can be corrected overnight, 35% of indigenous adults have never had an eye examination.Meanwhile, in rote WA, specialist coverage is up to 19x lower than in urban Australia and rural residents are 3x less likely to have seen an ophthalmologist.