Mobile eye clinics for Rota and Tinian VR consumers

To reduce additional costs and the inconvenience of having to fly in non-Saipan residents needing vital optical services, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation has partnered with Saipan-based eye clinics to conduct onsite eye-related services to the residents of Rota and Tinian.

OVR Director Tee Abraham said the fresh initiative has been implemented to provide all Northern Marianas consumers varied eye care options with the participation of eye clinics such as the Saipan Seventh-Day Adventist Clinic and the Marianas Eye Institute.

“We are collaborating so that consumers on Rota and Tinian will have other alternatives. This time, they don’t have to fly to Saipan but instead the experts come to them,” said Ms. Abraham.

The eye experts are expected to travel to Rota and Tinian geared with their portable clinic equipment during the monthly outreach missions, according to the VR director.

Seventh-Day Adventist Clinic Eye Clinic Director David G. Hardt has expressed interest to support OVR’s project.

“Our clinic provides a full range of eye care services. We have a wide range of portable equipment, and we are already providing services in Palau on a regular basis, so we are prepared to travel,” he told Ms. Abraham in a letter.

Mr. Hardt listed the clinic’s capability to provide Rota and Tinian residents medical treatment for eye disease, glasses, contact lenses, and low vision services.

With a new full-time eye doctor on board, Seventh Day Adventist Eye Clinic is also in the process of expanding its facility on Saipan, with plans to double its clinic space.

The eye expert said he and his team are set to travel to Tinian and Rota within the next few weeks and also unveiled plans to conduct monthly visits starting next year.

“If the demand of our services is greater than we are able to service on a once a month basis, we will arrange for more frequent and/or longer trips. My staff is presently working out the details with the Health Centers on Tinian and Rota,” said Mr. Hardt.

Meanwhile, OVR has yet to receive a response from Marianas Eye Institute’s Dr. David Khorram regarding the same proposal, according to Ms. Abraham.

The VR agency offers various forms of services available for the visually impaired.

OVR has recently been awarded $40,000 worth of federal funds to assist visually-impaired individuals aged 55 and above acquire the necessary vision aids that would support their plight to be independent.

The agency has been guaranteed continuous $40,000 funding for a span of five years under its Independent Living for the Older Blind program.

Ms. Abraham is urging individuals who are blind or poor-visioned, 55 and older to avail of the series of services the agency is offering.

Under the program, qualified applicants can be provided eye examinations, eye glasses or other low vision mobility aids.

These devices could include colored tapes for placing on edges of steps and dark colored electrical outlets which pose as safety precautionary instruments.

Writing and reading tools such as large print publications, computers with large print, cassette recording, talking books are also supplied to eligible applicants.

By definition, low vision or visual impairment has been categorized as a condition not correctable by standard glasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery that interferes with the ability to perform everyday activities.

Low vision, according to the vocational rehabilitation, can result from a variety of diseases, disorders, and injuries that affect the eye and many people with low vision have age-related macular degeneration, cataract, glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy. Age-related macular degeneration accounts for almost 45 percent of the all cases of low vision.