Course title: understanding vision loss and its impact on treatment strategies

Learn to increase your treatment success with low vision patients

course information

Title: Understanding Vision Loss and its Impact on Treatment Strategies

fee: $220 or $195 – If registered by Deadline on registration page

contact hours:
7 hours (Certificates of Attendance presented at end of session.) Sight loss has a profound impact on the outcome of occupational and physical therapy intervention. And as the baby-boomer population ages and medical advancements lengthen life spans, PTs and OTs increasingly see clients with age-related vision loss. This course gives physical and occupational therapists practical knowledge and skills which increase their therapeutic effectiveness with patients who have vision loss as a secondary diagnosis.

you will learn how to  

• Identify the prevalent vision impairments and understand their effects on the patient.
• Develop treatment strategies which incorporate low vision compensatory techniques.
• Use equipment designed for the insulin dependent diabetic with sight loss.
• Instruct adaptive low vision ADL skills which address the patient’s safety and independence.
• Perform assessments and modify vision related environmental factors that affect functionality.
• Improve your understanding of sight loss on the attitudes and abilities of your patients.

course description
This one day course explores low vision and its impact on the therapist’s ability to provide comprehensive care for adults. Emphasis is placed on practical applications and techniques designed to increase the therapist’s effectiveness in dealing with patients who have visual impairments. Participants gain a full understanding of the workings of the eye and common vision deficits. Discussions include age-related diseases affecting the senior population and how vision loss due to stroke and head trauma relate to functional task performance. There are hands-on lab sessions simulating visual deficits and instruction of compensatory techniques. Case examples provided by the participants are used to develop examples of modified therapy strategies. The course provides therapists with the practical knowledge and hands-on experience required to effectively address their treatment of adults with vision loss. Participant’s discussion and questions are encouraged. Course outline and assessment materials are provided along with audio tapes which provide rehabilitation techniques utilized in the E.A.R.S for Eyes program. Interested Therapists should register early as enrollment is limited due to hands-on labs.

instructor
Thomas L. McCarville, M.A., C.V.R.T., is certified as a blind/low vision teacher by the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals, and is a member of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired, Division on Aging. After he developed glaucoma at age 40, he made the decision to enter the profession of vision therapist. He attended Western Michigan University where he earned a Master of Arts Degree in Blind Rehabilitation Teaching. In addition to his low vision teaching, he facilitates low vision support groups in association with the State University of New York Optometric Center, and is a lecturer on the subject of low vision in the Department of Occupational Therapy at New York University, New York City. He works as an adviser to the National Association for Visually Handicapped (NAVH), and is an advocate for, and publicly speaks on the subject of increasing rehabilitation services for seniors with age-related vision loss. Mr. McCarville is also the C.E.O. of Enrichment Audio Resource Services, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing rehabilitation assistance to the visually impaired through their program, E.A.R.S. for Eyes. This national self-help program teaches adaptive daily living skills to seniors who have developed age-related vision loss. This unique program combines free audio taped instructional materials with telephone counseling as a rehabilitation technique with the goal of independence for visually impaired older adults.