This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Life beyond visual impairment can be productive, fulfilling
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
 Michael D. DePaolis |
If you have practiced long enough – and seen your share of patients – it is inevitable. Certain patients are destined to lose vision. While we have the knowledge, skills and unfaltering commitment to optimize and preserve vision, we all occasionally lose the battle. Whether it is a patient with diabetes and proliferative retinopathy or a geriatric patient with age-related macular degeneration, eventually some of our patients slip into the ranks of the partially sighted or, worse yet, legally blind. Nothing is more devastating for patient and doctor.
As optometrists, like other health care providers, we share a common thread. We are drawn to the profession for various reasons, but mainly because of the challenges and rewards offered by helping individuals see better. Few things are as gratifying as a happy and appreciative patient. It is for precisely this reason it is so hard when we make the diagnosis, provide exceptional care … and still lose the battle. We are just not well equipped to deal with patient despair, nor do we cope well with our own sense of helplessness. Arguably, however, the way in which we conduct ourselves following vision loss might be every bit as important as our patient care efforts beforehand. Let me explain.
We recently took our office staff to visit the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ABVI). Here, ABVI is partnered with Goodwill Industries. Together they provide our community with a variety of resources serving the needs of a wide demographic. What we expected to see was a state-of-the-art low vision clinic staffed by gifted professionals providing a wide array of aids and support services for the partially sighted and legally blind. What we saw was just that … and so much more.
We saw an agency providing more than visual rehabilitation. We saw an agency providing counseling, job training, careers and – perhaps most importantly – hope. As we toured the facility we met individuals who have gone far beyond adapting to their visual limitations. We met individuals who are employed and productive, in careers ranging from manufacturing to call center operations.
This visit to ABVI served as a humbling reminder that there is life beyond visual impairment. For sure, it is a different life, clearly one with inherent limitations. But it is a life that can be both productive and fulfilling.
Our visit also reminded me of the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As this landmark legislation celebrates its 20th anniversary, it, too, serves as a reminder of all the capabilities of our visually impaired patients. It is something to keep in mind as care givers and advocates for this important patient population.
See the commentary on the Americans with Disabilities Act by Primary Care Optometry News Editorial Board member Alfred A. Rosenbloom, OD, MA, DOS, FAAO, here.