Come September, interested persons would be able to commence reading for a degree in optometry at the University of Guyana (UG) if the Caribbean Council for the Blind (CCB) has its way.
Speaking to Stabroek News recently, current Executive Director of the organisation, Arvel Grant, said the CCB hoped to establish a school of optometry for the English-speaking Caribbean. The aim would be to have part of the course anchored at UG and part at another university in the region. If all goes well, Grant said, by the beginning of the 2009 academic year the programme would become a reality.
Last week the organisation, which is represented locally by Eye Care Guyana through a board of trustees chaired by Stanley Cooke, met in Guyana and the optometry school was high on the agenda for discussion. According to Grant the CCB is being assisted by the International Council for Eye Health Education, based in South Africa, in the formulation of the curriculum for the degree. Professors Aseem Minto of Pakistan and Kovin Naidoo of South Africa are also assisting the organisation along with Angela Reading who is from the United Kingdom and attached to Eye Care Guyana.
Speaking about CCB, Grant said while his organisation was in the business of preventing blindness and restoring sight, an important function is creating opportunities for persons who are blind. The organisation was established since 1967 and now exists in some 22 countries with 29 members and 85 partner agencies. The council meets every two years and elects a board of directors and the members of the board meet twice a year. The organisation’s secretariat is located in Antigua.
According to Grant, his organisation has been in Guyana since 1980 and it was in 1987 that it developed a programme at the St Roses Unit for children with visual impairment with a similar unit being established at the New Silver City School in Linden recently. He said the biggest thrust of the organisation’s work in Guyana was preventing blindness and to this end it has established optometry and low vision units at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), West Demerara Hospital and the Linden Hospital Complex while plans are in train to have similar units established at the New Amsterdam, Skeldon, Suddie and Bartica hospitals.
The GPHC unit is the only one that has a trained optometrist on hand. Usually screening takes place at the various units and if patients’ complaints are serious they are referred to the GPHC unit. However, every unit has an adjustment-to-blindness technician who visits homes and assists persons who are blind with health care; assists them to be independent and mobile. The technicians also help the blind to be attached to any social services found in their area. All of the staff members are paid by CCB through its Guyana office.
During its years in Guyana, the organisation has developed strong ties with the ministries of Health, Human Services and Social Security and Education. Grant disclosed that his organisation hoped to establish what will be known as the National School Vision Unit which would screen children to have any problems with their sight pinpointed early. Once those children are identified they would then be referred for treatment and if they need spectacles, assistance would be given to them. Also on the agenda is the establishment of a nationwide screening programme at all health centres for all sixth graders. It is hoped that when the screening programme begins schools would be visited twice a year with the same children being screened twice. As is it right now, the programme is run by a small pilot team which came into existence in partnership with PAHO.
