“It’s easy to think that anyone can just walk into an eye clinic and access the eye care. But that’s not always the case,” says Amy Roan Moy, OD, FAAO, CPCO, FNAP. “There are going to be barriers like cost, lack of transportation, lack of insurance, fear of losing one’s job if taking time off, language barriers or healthcare literacy. These are just some of the issues stacked against people gaining to access eye care.”
VISUAL HEALTH EQUITY
The numbers are staggering, says Dr. Moy, senior director of Community Health Initiatives and Optometric Compliance of the New England College of Optometry. The mission there is to make eye care accessible to all in the health center setting. “Only three percent of the 31.5 million community health center patients in the country have access to eye care services.”
Dr. Moy shares practical advice on ways that eye care professionals can provide more culturally safe care. In addition, they can help influence policy and community action. “We don’t tell the story as well as we could. If we told more stories about how 40% of children in Boston-area schools being screened fail their vision screenings, more people would sit up and say, ‘Whoa. That’s a problem.’ I think that if we told more stories about how 40% of the children being screened fail. More people would sit up and say, Whoa, that’s a problem.'”
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Photo courtesy of Dr. Moy
