Recognizing World Blindness Awareness Month
Before the month is out, we wanted to bring World Blindness Awareness Month to your attention as October marks this event each year. It is important that we recognize this and reflect upon what this means for the vision-impaired community. Today’s blog post sets out to inform and create awareness around World Blindness Awareness Month.
Blindness Awareness Month was founded in 2009 with the intention of achieving three key goals – Education, inspiration, and advocacy.
It is important that we recognize this special event in the vision care and health calendar as ‘over 500,000 Canadians are blind or partially sighted’ (beyondvision.ca). The Covid-19 pandemic has made the problem worse with many Canadians putting off their regular eye examinations due to the strict lockdowns that were enforced. Delaying eye exams and treatments can allow for vision loss to occur, which is why it is so crucial that you attend regularly scheduled appointments with your optometrist. However, while vision impairment has become an epidemic in Canada, more than ‘one billion cases of visual impairment are preventable’ (beyondvision.ca) – All the more reason to go and visit your optometrist every couple of years!
October 14th marked World Sight Day. This event was created to try and bring awareness to eye health on a global scale.
While the biggest causes of vision loss for Canadians are cataracts and diabetic-related diseases, one eye disease that is a cause of concern internationally which rarely affects Canadians is Trachoma. Generally, Trachoma is more common amongst eastern immigrants and those affected by poverty but could occur at any time and any place as this bacterial infection of the eye is passed through contact from our hands and clothes. Cataracts is the leading cause of vision loss globally, but it is good to bring some attention to Trachoma as it is a serious public health issue in up to 44 different countries and is irreversible – but entirely preventable!
An excellent example of a resource that is out there right now for the vision-impaired community to assist with blindness and vision loss is a mobile application called ‘Be My Eyes’. This application, which is currently an Editor’s Choice in the app store, is available to download onto your phone and it works by taking on volunteers who are ready to help the vision-impaired users with everyday activities such as reading or getting around when out and about.
To conclude our blog post on World Blindness Awareness Month, we wanted to leave our readers off with some tips to prevent eye damage or vision loss from occurring.
Always wash your hands to avoid bacteria getting into your eyes – hand washing protects you from a lot more than just COVID-19, so keep on top of this to ensure that your eyes are protected along with everything else!
Protect yourself from UV rays by wearing sunglasses where they are needed – And if you don’t have a pair right now or need to get a new pair, View Optometry stocks the popular sunglass brands Ray Ban and Maui Jim, so stop on by and take a look at those today.
Avoid eye strain by limiting your screen time – If this is something you are not in a position to do, here at View we offer our patients blue-blocking and anti-fatigue lenses.
Remember to attend regular eye examinations with your optometrist – This is the best advice that we could give you to prevent any form of eye disease or damage so we would strongly encourage that you keep on top of your appointments.
At View, we are always ready to take on new patients and provide them with the highest level of care, so if you need to book in for an eye examination to check up on the health of your valuable peepers, give us a call or book online today!