Visual Impairment Team Keeps an Eye on Veterans

It is estimated that the number of legally blind veterans will increase to 147,864 by 2010 – up from 108,112 in 1995.

To understand the impact these numbers have in every day life, recent studies show that severe visual impairment may be a risk factor for mortality. Severe visual impairment, in the absence of vision rehabilitation, restricts an individual’s activities creating a disability that often isolates the person from family and society.

The Houston VA Medical Center provides visually impaired and blind veterans with direct assistance and coordination in a variety of health care areas. The Visual Impairment Services team coordinates a comprehensive program for eligible veterans with serious visual restrictions. Veterans are offered the opportunity to apply for training and services that will increase their level of independence.

Nationwide, there are currently 68,710 veterans eligible for the VA’s blind rehabilitation services.

The team assists veterans with health care, personal and social adjustment issues, VA compensation and pension, orientation and mobility, communication skills, personal management, vocational training, special visual aids, and referrals. Veterans from southeast Texas requiring certain types of rehabilitation and training are sent to VA Blind Training Centers in Waco or Tucson. These centers offer unique equipment and services such as low-vision magnification devices, basic life-skills and computer training, closed-circuit televisions, and mobility and travel-skill training.

To date, the Houston program has referred more than 110 blind veterans to the training centers. The Houston VA Medical Center is the most active blind training referral and new patient VA facility in the nation. The vision program has grown in the last seven years from an enrollment of 330 patients to approximately 800 legally blind veterans. This past summer, Bill Johnson, the hospital’s vision team coordinator, received a national citation at the 57th annual National Blind Veterans Association Convention in San Antonio for service to blind veterans in southeast Texas.

The team of health care professionals who support the Houston program includes Silvia Orengo-Nania, M.D., who heads up the medical team and is the hospital’s chief of ophthalmology; Laura Seitz, chief of audiology; Angela Bishop, chief of prosthetics; Miguel Ortega, social work practice manager; Michelle Farrow, lead consumer affairs representative; Jarka Trojan, M.D., and Charles Killingsworth, M.D., compensation and pension; Manny Lozano, VA Regional Office; and Arnette Wilson, Blinded Veterans Association.

For more information, call (713) 794-7442.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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