Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO regional director for South East Asia, formally inaugurated L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI)’s ‘Institute for Vision Rehabilitation’, Dr GN Rao, founder-chairman, LVPEI; Dr TP Das, vice chairman, LVPEI; Dr Chandrasekhar, vice chairman, LVPEI & Beula Christy, head, centre for rehabilitation, LVPEI, were present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said, this new center for rehabilitation at LV Prasad Eye Institute is an added glory. WHO has always emphasized on comprehensive health care, however health care institutions mostly focus on preventive, promotive and curative procedures, but care becomes comprehensive only when rehabilitation also gets the same attention. Rarely one finds rehabilitation getting the same emphasis. Rehabilitation becomes most important when blindness can’t be cured. This is the first center in the world which has inculcated rehabilitation and where all aspects of care, preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative are all under one roof and getting the same attention.

When conventional treatments - such as medical or surgical - fail to prevent or restore vision loss, patients often experience visual impairment. Visual impairment is an umbrella term that includes low vision and blindness. Visual impairment can have immediate and long-term consequences in children and adults, such as lost educational and employment opportunities, lost economic gain for individuals, families and societies, and impaired quality of life.

Dr GN Rao said, this Centre for Rehabilitation will provide treatment and also training & education to professionals from all over the world and undertake research on rehabilitation. We will make this into a global resource center. Since we may not be in a position reach our treatment to all needy patients, we will train professionals from across the world to replicate care, he added.

Unfortunately, 90% of the world’s visually impaired live in resource-poor countries such as India. According to the World Health Organization, currently there are an estimated 8 million people with blindness and an additional 55 million people with low vision in India. Of this only less than 10% have access to rehabilitation care.

LVPEI’s Institute for the Vision Rehabilitation aims “To be a centre of excellence for service delivery, education and training, resources, research and advocacy for the development and expansion of vision rehabilitation services nationally and internationally.” Vision Rehabilitation services are integrated in the institute’s secondary and primary centres through centre-based and community-based services.

LVPEI’s Vision Rehabilitation services have rehabilitated over 1,40,000 blind and visually impaired persons, including both centre-based and community-based activities across the LVPEI network. This unique distinction is one of a kind in the world, as LVPEI was one of the earliest institutes to institutionalize a rehabilitation centre as part of its eye care hospital services, 24 years ago on June 4, 1992.

Dr Khetrapal Singh was here in connection with the ‘Regional Expert Group Consultation - Accelerating Actions for Prevention of Blindness’ meetings of the World Health Organization from December 13-15, 2016 being hosted by LVPEI. ESL Narasimhan, Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states, formally inaugurated the meetings later in the evening.