Healthy Vision Community Awards--2006 Round

Winner Profiles

Access Community Health Network, Chicago, IL
Eye Connect, a project conducted by Access Community Health Network (ACHN), will educate low-income and minority communities in Chicago in order to help treat and prevent diabetic retinopathy. ACHN will partner with community organizations, including the American Diabetes Association and the Illinois Eye Institute, to help reach and educate people in need, and to make a comprehensive system of care available to people with diabetes.

**Aroostook Area Agency on Aging, Presque Isle, ME
The Computer Access Program for Seniors, run by the Aroostook Area Agency on Aging, works to meet some of the unmet needs of the blind and visually impaired persons in Aroostook and neighboring counties in Maine. Donated computers are accepted, refurbished, and recycled for the benefit of older people and other adults who are blind and visually impaired. Aroostook Agency staff and volunteers offer one-on-one tutoring to teach and enable blind and visually impaired people to use the equipment provided.

Association for the Rehabilitation and Education of the Blind and Visually Impaired, Alexandria, VA

The Association for Utah Community Health, Salt Lake City, UT
The Association will expand participation in its diabetes prevention, diagnosis, and management retinal screening program from five to 14 health centers with the support of this award. The Association will extend its current retinal screening project to reach more people who are uninsured and underinsured, and to access more people who are at risk for diabetic eye disease.

Blind & Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh, Homestead, PA
The Senior Outreach program works to educate senior citizens about vision rehabilitation services and devices. Pittsburgh has the highest median age in the United States, thereby having a rate of prevalence of visual impairment that is associatively high. The Senior Outreach program provides onsite instruction and dispenses adaptive devices after low vision evaluations are conducted.

Boston Health Care for the Homeless, Boston, MA
The Healthy Eyes Project will educate and inform patients with diabetes and health care workers on the effects of diabetic retinopathy and will work to help reduce the risk of impairment from the eye disease. The project will provide information about risks and symptoms, provide a useful and accessible reference and referral point for the patient, offer useful advice regarding the prevention and management of diabetic retinopathy, and support patients in their pursuit of living a high-quality life with diabetes.

Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation, Dillingham, AK
The Healthy Vision Project endeavors to increase the use of personal protective eyewear in recreational activities and hazardous household conditions among the residents of the Bristol Bay area in Alaska. Health fairs and Save Your Vision month activities will assist people in learning about appropriate protective eyewear. Year-long displays and presentations will be designed to help community health representatives educate their communities about protecting vision by using protective eyewear.

Cahaba Valley Health Care, Birmingham, AL
The Occupational Eye Safety Project will endeavor to reduce occupational eye injuries among Latino men in Alabama. Cahaba Valley Health Care will perform vision screenings in Latino churches. Presentations and visual aids in Spanish about eye safety and protective eyewear will be made available to men who present for screening. Licensed optometrists are assisted by 18 volunteers to accomplish the vision screenings.

Carroll Center for the Blind, Newton, MA
The Keeping Independent After Vision Loss project will educate patients with vision loss about available devices and rehabilitation training. The Project endeavors to help those who are struggling with vision loss and to improve daily life for those persons who face the remainder of life without the possibility of a cure. The project aims to supplement the work of the medical community by focusing on the health of the eye and the health of the patient, and by enabling persons struggling with vision loss to learn about adaptive devices and rehabilitation techniques that facilitate independence, especially for managing activities related to health, information, and household management.

Center for the Partially Sighted, Los Angeles, CA
LOOK-Local Outreach for Optical Knowledge (for Low Vision) is a project where senior center staff, nurses, social workers, home healthcare providers, independent- and assisted-living facilities staff, dialysis personnel, housing staff, teachers, and Adult Protective Services staff are the targeted to receive information about low vision rehabilitation services and devices. Information about adaptive and assistive devices, warning signs of vision loss, descriptions of the causes of eye diseases, and an overview of low vision rehabilitation services will be communicated.

Cheyenne Health and Wellness Center, Cheyenne, WY
The Laramie County Healthy Vision Project endeavors to increase the rate of annual dilated eye examinations for low-income people in Laramie County, particularly those who are Latino/Hispanic and who either have or are at risk for developing visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, or cataracts. The Project, run by the Cheyenne Health and Wellness Center, will implement a screening process, conduct diabetes education sessions, direct community-based education, provide free dilated eye examinations, develop a referral network, and offer follow-up services.

Connecticut Primary Care Association, Hartford, CT
The Community Partners for Preventing Eye Disease in Diabetics will link patients in the Diabetes Collaborative with the Lions Club Low Vision Centers for services and visual aids, and expand access to eye specialists for health center patients. The Healthy Vision project endeavors to prevent visual impairment in underserved populations due to diabetic retinopathy through diabetes education and an emphasis on health management. Services include providing "Talking Rx," a visual impairment device, to low-income or uninsured patients who have diabetes and low vision.

Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Families, Wilmington, DE
Healthy Vision Delaware emphasizes the prevention and management of glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, as well as the promotion of rehabilitation. Education is conducted in collaboration with faith-based communities. Components of this project include volunteer caregiving services, screening and rehabilitation, targeted education on eye health to at-risk populations, and mailings of public health education materials regarding vision health to clergy and health ministers.

District of Columbia Department of Health, Washington, DC
The project works to improve rates of annual dilated eye exams and to reduce vision problems in two clinics that serve Spanish-speaking clients. Educational efforts directed to patients and providers will attempt to seek solutions to the problems of health disparities by working with a network of providers, residents, and specialists to enlist community support toward addressing disparities. Health care providers will be offered intensive skill building to help people living with chronic visual conditions and to help patients self-manage their illness.

ElderCare of Alachua County, Gainesville, FL
The ElderCare of Alachua County program will educate the medical community and the public, especially persons with visual impairments and their caregivers. The project will promote available resources that can help improve the quality of life, and will ensure that adaptive resources are used to assist visually impaired persons who remain in their homes and want to live independently and with dignity. The project anticipates educating 400 people about available assistive and adaptive devices.

**Envision, Wichita, KS
See the Possibilities focuses on support and training for caregivers of visually impaired seniors in Kansas. Support and training will be offered to caregivers in the Agency on Aging in assisting older adults as they cope with vision loss and attempt to access vision rehabilitation services and adaptive devices. Essential training and resource information will be provided on managing the challenges that caregivers face in providing the best possible care to seniors who are living with visual impairment, in order to maximize seniors' success with continued independent living. Training curricula currently in use will be updated and expanded as a result of this project funding.

Family Health Centers, Orangeburg, SC
The Diabetic Retinopathy Education and Screening Project serving Orangeburg, Bamberg, and Calhoun Counties, aims to use community-wide health education as a vehicle to reduce visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy, primarily among people with diabetes, African-Americans, and/or those who are uninsured, underinsured or medically underserved. Diabetes is the 6th leading cause of death among South Carolinians, and an estimated 50 percent of all diabetes cases go undiagnosed. Health education will be provided to those with diabetes already under care, and health education ads and health fairs will offer healthy education information and counseling sessions.

Family Health Partnership Clinic, Woodstock, IL
Healthy McHenry County will offer support groups and education for people with newly diagnosed diabetes and those with long-term diabetes who have been unable to control their diabetes. The aim of the project is to decrease the risk of diabetic retinopathy among uninsured people in McHenry County whose first language is Spanish. The project will focus on three components: core diabetes self-management training, behavior modification techniques to improve measurable health outcomes, and visual exams to detect diabetic eye disease.

**Farmworker Association of Florida, Apopka, FL
The Association's Partnership for Citrus Worker Health will continue its work reducing occupational injuries among migrant farm workers in Florida's citrus industry by using peer educators to promote the use of safety glasses. Camp Health Aides are deployed to treat workers in the field for common eye injuries, and will continue to distribute safety glasses to field workers during the harvest. Workers who wore the distributed glasses reported a significant reduction in commonly reported irritations and injuries, including falling dust, debris, soreness from sunlight, and scratches from branches.

Florida Optometric Association, Tallahassee, FL
The Many Eyes of Diabetes is a project that endeavors to increase patient knowledge of preventive strategies that pertain to eye health and vision care. Target groups include Florida residents with diabetes who do not speak English "very well."Educational materials, including a Web page, will be created that are culturally and linguistically appropriate. The project will also improve reporting of eye examination findings to primary care physicians.

Henry Street Settlement, New York, NY
The Senior Companion Program brings together healthy, active, older adult volunteers to help frail elderly throughout New York City. One hundred twelve volunteers serve about 250 frail elderly, providing services by peers to prevent social isolation and to encourage aging at home, with some independence. The program provides needed visual health information for its volunteers and clients.

Hill Health Corporation, New Haven, CT
Project PreVENT (Prediabetic Vision Education, Networking and Treatment) represents a proactive program that reduces visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy by increasing eye care and vision education for patients with prediabetes. This project services prediabetic patients in Connecticut, especially in New Haven and surrounding areas.

Jewish Guild for the Blind, New York, NY
Caring for People with Vision Loss is a project that will conduct a series of workshops and health screening events designed to educate people in the northern neighborhoods of New York City. The focus of education and screening will be vision impairment due to glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, and available assistive and adaptive devices.

Kansas Optometric Association, Topeka, KS
The See to Play Program is an eye safety program for school-age athletes. The objective is to increase awareness of the need for protective eyewear for young people of all ages involved in sports activities. Target groups include coaches and instructors, parents, and children.

**Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, Anchorage, AK
The radio campaign in Anchorage Alaska will endeavor to increase awareness among Alaska Natives and Native Americans that annual dilated eye exam can detect diabetic eye disease and glaucoma before vision loss occurs. This preventive campaign will also increase awareness of ocular safety measures such as wearing protective eyewear while working at applicable tasks.

**La Familia Medical Center, Santa Fe, NM
The Northern New Mexico Eye Care Project aims to decrease the incidence of blindness and eye injury due to diabetic retinopathy and other eye diseases. The project provides education on prevention and treatment, offers peer counseling in medical self-management, expedites retinal images to physicians in the referral system for treatment of patients with diabetic eye disease, and tracks all patients for future examinations and interim contact.

Lighthouse Central Florida, Orlando, FL>
The Central Florida Outreach Campaign will increase the use of vision rehabilitation services and adaptive devices through collaborative community presentations, in-service trainings for human service professionals, and broad media exposure. The project will target human service professionals and individuals in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole Counties, focusing on the growing population over age 65 and other high-risk groups.

Macular Degeneration Support, Grandview, MO
The Low Vision Senior Support program will run simultaneous support group meetings using live Internet conferencing technology. All seniors with low vision will be invited to hear about the latest research, treatment options, low vision devices, and rehabilitation opportunities. All aspects related to understanding and living with visual impairment will be covered, and Internet access for individual investigation will be provided.

Martha's Village and Kitchen, Coachella Valley, CA
The Expanded Diabetic Education and Eye Health Screening project will serve homeless and indigent families and individuals. The project helps people with diabetes learn how to live with and manage their chronic disease. Free screening and treatment of diabetes-related vision problems are offered.

Maryland Society for Sight, Baltimore, MD
Eat Right for Healthy Sight is a pilot educational project in Head Start preschools where vision screenings will be provided. The project will educate Head Start teachers, staff, and parents, about the link between obesity and diabetes, which can lead to diabetic retinopathy.

Muskegon Community Health Project, Muskegon, MI
Changing Health Outcomes by Outreach and Sight Education (CHOOSE) is a collaborative project to increase the percentage of diagnosed patients with diabetes who proactively choose dilated eye exams. The project also focuses on persons determined to be at risk of developing diabetes within two years. A multimedia awareness campaign will present facts about diabetes and its potential effect on the eyes.

National Safety Council, Itasca, IL
The Commercial Equipment Operators Eye Protection Program endeavors to promote the use of approved protective eyewear to reduce the level of preventable eye injuries among commercial lawn care workers. Protective eyewear is distributed to lawn care workers in the Chicago metro region and the continued use of approved protective eyewear is observed to monitor outcomes.

Nebraska Health and Human Services State Unit on Aging, Lincoln, NE
The project, Reducing Visual Impairment Due to Diabetic Retinopathy, endeavors to heighten awareness about the importance of eye care for older adults with diabetes, and to strengthen the knowledge base for older adults and health educators about the principles of diabetes management and self-care. Ten to 15 senior centers across the state will participate in this project, which addresses the disproportionate numbers of Nebraska elderly who have been diagnosed with diabetes.

Nimiipuu Health, Lapwai, ID
Nimiipuu Health provides healthcare services to the Nez Perce Tribe and other Native Americans for who diabetes and associated complications are major health issues. The Project will conduct an education campaign to encourage patients with diabetes to have a yearly eye exam, with the goal of increasing the percentage of patients with diabetes who received a yearly dilated exam in the past year from the current 40 percent to at least 60 percent.

North Carolina Community Health Center Association, Morrisville, NC
The project will use existing infrastructure and relationships throughout the state of North Carolina to help "safety net" healthcare professionals who serve the medically underserved and uninsured populations throughout the state. The goal is to help stem the epidemic of diabetes and its complications by offering training and technical assistance in the prevention and treatment of diabetic retinopathy through glycemic control and appropriate vision care, skill training in vision screening, and methods for accommodating low vision clients in the health care environment.

**North Country Community Health Center, Flagstaff, AZ
Diabetes Retinopathy Detection & Prevention Project will continue its goal of educating the Flagstaff community about the importance of early detection and prevention of diabetic retinopathy. The target audience is the uninsured, underinsured, and medically underserved people in Coconino County, AZ. Case management services, education, and a Diabetes Month Expo will offer services to more than 300 diabetes patients.

Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana, Youngstown, OH
Project endeavors to help reduce the incidence of the comment, "I wish I had known." The project objective is to help people make the life-saving and sight-saving changes they can choose if they know more about diabetes, its complications, and the preventive effects of early detection. Diet education and resources for low vision health are offered to Hispanic and African American populations in the region served.

Pennsylvania Vision Conservation Institute, Harrisburg, PA
The Accessibility, Availability, and Scope of Low Vision Rehabilitation Services and Adaptive Devices in Pennsylvania project endeavors to define and implement direct strategies to increase the use of rehabilitation services and adaptive devices by persons with visual impairments. Collaborations are anticipated with the Pennsylvania Optometric Association, the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind, and the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association.

Philadelphia Corporation for Aging, Philadelphia, PA
The Project will educate older adults in the service region about vision health issues, and will encourage participation in the project's vision health screening. The Project goal is to increase the percentage of older persons who are aware of the signs, symptoms, and risk factors associated with glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. Preventive measures will also be discussed, and the project aims to encourage at least 50 percent of older persons served to visit their doctors to inquire about glaucoma/diabetic retinopathy within six months of the initial program.

Prevent Blindness Ohio, Columbus, OH
The Senior Eye Health Project has as a goal to decrease the incidence of preventable vision loss among Central Ohio's seniors. Healthy lifestyles, early detection, vision treatment, and rehabilitation are the areas of focus. Senior care professionals and volunteers will be recruited and trained to help provide access for 5,000+ Central Ohio seniors.

Prevent Blindness Tri-State, CT, NY & NJ
Work Sight is a pilot project that will provide workplace vision screening for 500 people and one-on-one eye safety consultations for 500 people in the workplace. Designed in conjunction with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a four-part process will be employed to assess the employees' risk for workplace eye problems and explain risk factors. All recruited employees will meet with an Eye Health and Safety consultant to assess workplace personal protective visual equipment needs. It is expected that knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs will be modified.

Ravenswood Family Health Center, East Palo Alto, CA
The Diabetic Vision Care and Community Education Project will develop a protocol and a coordinated system of referrals and follow-up for patients with diabetes to ensure they receive an annual dilated eye exam and recommended eye care treatment. The Project will also increase awareness in the East Bayshore community about the need for periodic eye exams to prevent retinopathy and other visual impairments, and educate at-risk people about the benefits of an annual dilated eye exam.

Richland Parish Hospital, Delhi, LA
The Delhi Hospital Eye Disease Education Project will increase the proportion of persons with diabetes or those who are at risk for diabetes about reducing the risk of visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy. Service areas include Richland Parish, East Carroll, West Carroll, Madison, and Franklin Parishes in Louisiana. The project has the potential to impact a diabetes mortality rate of nearly 54 percent. Education efforts will be accomplished via health fairs, group meetings, speaking opportunities, and development of education materials.

Southern Rural Healthcare Consortium, Russellville, AL
The Diabetes Education in Vision Health Project will spread a key message about "Caring for your vision if you are living with diabetes."The project will educate people about the importance of a comprehensive dilated eye exam for those diagnosed with diabetes, the importance of controlling blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol in order to reduce vision complications related to diabetes, and increase the number of routine comprehensive dilated eye exams scheduled by patients diagnosed with diabetes.

Taylor County Diabetes Retinopathy Outreach Program, Perry, FL
The project goal is to reduce the incidence of preventable diabetic retinopathy among persons diagnosed with diabetes in Taylor Country, Florida. The project will endeavor to increase the percentage of patients receiving annual eye exams form 28 percent to 85 percent, and to increase the number of patient education hours during physician visits from zero to four hours per year. A community education event and two screening events will be conducted in order to better reach minority and uninsured persons. The facility is a county public health agency.

Third Avenue Charitable Organization, San Diego, CA
The objective of the Expanding Vision Education and Resources project is to educate residents of underserved neighborhoods about preventative eye care to avoid blindness from diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. Project workers will give healthcare providers materials to help educate, screen, and treat this underserved population. This project is a collaborative partnership between the Third Avenue Charitable Organization and the UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic.

Urban Ministries of Wake County, Inc.-Open Door Clinic, Raleigh, NC
The Diabetes Care Blindness Prevention Initiative for Wake Country will serve the residents of Wake County, NC, who are at risk for vision loss from diabetes. The program will educate the community about diabetes-related eye disease, coordinate information about professional eye care resources for dilated retinal screening exams and treatment, and will undertake collaborative efforts to expand resources for high-risk, low-income ethnic minority communities, primarily African-Americans and Hispanics. The DCBPI coalition routinely addresses barriers to accessible eye exams and ophthalmic treatment faced by low-income populations at risk for eye disease, vision impairment, and blindness.

Vista Community Clinic, Vista, CA
The Vista Community Clinic (VCC) Healthy Eyes Program will serve at least 400 patients with diabetes, mostly low-income Hispanic immigrants, by delivering culturally competent health education materials (Spanish/English) combined with referrals for eye exams and follow-up. At five clinic sites, VCC will educate and help patients with diabetes understand the ocular risks of diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

Visually Impaired Center, Flint, MI
Managing Diabetes with Vision Loss offers education and training in diabetes self-management specifically geared to persons who are blind or visually impaired and are residing in Genesee, Shiawasee, or Lapeer counties. The project will teach the use of adaptive devices and techniques for accurate insulin measurement and accurate glucose monitoring, proper nutrition for improved diabetes control, and safe and healthy cooking classes designed for blind and visually impaired persons with diabetes.

Wendy Elliot Foundation, Lake Charles, LA
The goal of the Louisiana Vision Rehabilitation Initiative is to increase the awareness and use of vision rehabilitation services and adaptive devices among seniors who have low vision or are at risk for developing low vision. Professionals who provide services to seniors with low vision are also a target audience for this initiative. A vision symposium will be developed and presented, and the Louisiana Vision Rehabilitation network will be developed as a result of this initiative.

West Virginia Health Right, Charleston, WV
The Eye Safety in the Home project addresses the home as the location where nearly half of all eye injuries occur. Many of these in-home injuries are preventable, with appropriate use of personal protective eyewear. This project will endeavor to change procedures in triage, will develop print and signage resources, and will increase patient awareness about the benefits of using personal protective eyewear in recreational activities and hazardous situations around the home.

Wisconsin Council of the Blind, Madison, WI
Low Vision Seminars for Professional Caregivers are designed for public health and parish nurses, assisted-living activity and therapy directors, independent-living workers, eye care professionals, and others who provide services to people who can benefit from knowledge about low vision and vision rehabilitation. Rural, Native American, and Hmong patient populations are targeted. The goal of this outreach project is increased knowledge among those served with a resulting increase in referrals for low vision rehabilitation services. This project will result in increased independence and increased personal safety, along with a reduction in falls, incorrect self-medication, and the incidence of household injury, which can stem from vision impairment.

**Selected for continuation award from 2005 Round.