Providing low vision rehabilitation services with occupational therapy and ophthalmology: a program description

This article describes a low vision rehabilitation program operating within a hospital-based outpatient rehabilitation clinic. The program uses a team approach combining ophthalmology and occupational therapy services. Patients are referred to the program by their primary care physician for a low vision evaluation completed jointly by the ophthalmologist and occupational therapist. The ophthalmology portion of the evaluation includes assessment of visual acuity, contrast sensitivity function, and macular perimetry with a scanning laser ophthalmoscope. The occupational therapy evaluation focuses on assessing the functional limitations experienced by the patient due to the vision loss and determining how the patient is best able to use remaining vision to complete daily activities. Occupational therapy treatment emphasizes training the patient to use remaining vision as efficiently and effectively as possible to complete daily activities and includes training in use of optical devices. Because of the specialized nature of the service provided, additional postgraduate preparation is needed to enable occupational therapists to provide effective low vision rehabilitation.