Charlotte Varcoe
ALL eyes are on the Lions Club of Mount Gambier as they continue to test children’s sight in schools.
The Lions Eye Health Program helps volunteers test the eyesight of students free of charge in an effort to further support their education.
One in five children will have undetected vision issues with the Lions Club screening teams now available in all states and territories.
Up to 80 per cent of a child’s learning happens through their eyes and children will accept visual issues and adapt.
Lions Club volunteers will attend the schools and test students eyesight following permission from guardians or parents who will then be provided with confidential results.
The tests will include a spot vision camera which helps detect near and far sightedness, blurred vision, eye misalignment, unequal pupil size or refractive errors.
There is also the visual activity which helps assess how sharp the students vision is, a depth perception test which helps assess binocular function and a colour vision test which helps assess how a child perceives colour.
Lions eye health trainer Becky Field said the club was made aware of the program from conventions.
“We had an optometrist come and visit the club when we had some interest in taking it over,” Ms Field said.
“We found out that children have not been getting their eyes tested before going to school for about 14 years and thought we could fill that gap.”
She said after receiving a grant from Specsavers and having local optometrist Brad Mann help with the first screening, it was all systems go for the not-for-profit organisation.
“We got the team from Adelaide to come down and showed us what was involved and how to run the program,” Ms Field said.
“We spent a day with St John’s Cadets to go through all the testing and everyone had a go at all the different pieces of equipment.”
During her time as president, Lions eye health coordinator Jill Austin wanted to get the project off the ground with the Covid-19 pandemic making it difficult.
Ms Field said with her being the follow-on president, she made it her priority to get the program running.
“We only started doing the program late last year with October being the first time we visited the school and trained our own people,” Ms Field.
Since beginning the program, the club has referred about 18 out of its 81 students tested and noticed a rise in students needing support with depth perception.
Ms Austin said she believed it could be due to the increased use of screens and devices.
“The teachers are really great at saying they are going to go and play games with the Lions Club and we stress with the teachers we are here to play games,” Ms Austin said.
“One of the equipment pieces takes a photo of the child’s eye and we put that on a USB as part of the reference or recommendation for the parent.”
She said the club knew the program was important for the community and helped students on an ongoing basis.
“This is a great way to give back to the community, it is not costing the community anything, we do not charge the schools, we do not ask for donations or anything else, we just go and do the testing while having fun,” Ms Austin said.
Schools interested in participating are encouraged to contact Ms Austin on 0408 819 994.
