Who does vision therapy? Does it work? Is it a regulated profession? Can Opticians do this? Anybody?
Who does vision therapy? Does it work? Is it a regulated profession? Can Opticians do this? Anybody?
Hmmm, where to start...
As far as who can do or prescribe vision therapy, you had better check with your state board.
Certainly VT works when a proper diagnosis is made and a prescribed course of therapy is carried out. It is not just something that you can do on anybody and expect improvement in vision. It is often prescribed for binocular dysfunctions such as strabismus, intermittent exotropia, convergence insufficiency and excess, and amblyopia. It is also used in oculomotor dysfunctions such as poor tracking, versions, ductions, and pursuits, as well as in accommodative dysfunctions.
Go to the website of the American Optometric Association and the College of Optometrists in Visual Development (COVD).
Check with your CA authorities. The above posts from fjpod leaves off orthoptists who primarily handle this area in ophthalmologist and other specialists offices. Although if memory serves me they are not an autonomous profession so you will not find them practicing alone currently. For more info about orthoptists check out http://www.jcahpo.org and http://www.orthoptics.org/ most orthoptists will go the route of COT because it often means gaining credits towards their post secondary degree.Originally Posted by RKM
Check out the Canadian Orthoptics Society ....................
Check out the Canadian Opthoptics Society website at : ---------------> http://www.tcos.ca/english/about_ort...orthoptist.php
That should give you all the answers.
There are four accredited teaching programs in Canada. All four programs are accredited by the Canadian Medical Association.
Candidates to the Orthoptic programs must have completed an undergraduate degree at a recognized university. Applicants will possess excellent written and oral communication skills, and be able to relate well to children and adults.
Orthoptic teaching in Canada is a minimum of 24 months. The Halifax training center at Dalhousie University offers a third thesis year in order to complete a Masters degree.
I have written a technical CE course on this subject. I work with a well known VT OD here in AZ. And I can tell you that it definitely works for many issues that involve more than correcting image aberration. It can help to think of the human visual system involving parts. 1. the image entering the eye 2. what happens with the image data after it has processed through the retina. VT works in the realm of the latter. It is a sensory motor therapy.
My personal experience with VT is that it has been very therapeutic for people with traumatic brain injuries, stroke victims, visual system learning disabilities, and improving athletic performance. The most amazing results are getting immobile patients much greater mobility and quality of life. Having children that were set for muscle surgery end up not needing to go under the knife. Other children that were considered ADHD didn't need drugs to focus they just needed their visual perception of the world tweaked a bit.
For a general background of VT and some of the reasons that there is a misconception of voodoo or even a hostile view on it take a look at my article. Its posted n the CE section of 20/20 magazine online.
Hope this helps.
I agree there's a lot of good in VT for specific patients with unique visual needs. The one issue I have with it isn't the therapy itself, but rather how the OD's (in my neck of the woods) are literally milking patients by charging $3000.00 up front for 'X' many sessions. This is only the first module, then it's another $3K!
Yes, any type of therapy normally takes time with repeated sessions before noticing positive improvement. However, patients should have the option to try a few first without committing someone to a small fortune. And naturally, there is no guarantee the issue will be corrected.
There's one OD in my town offering this on patients 2 years of age before they've ever even had an eye exam! Praying on the weak minded for financial gain or religious beliefs is exactly the same type of crookedness insanity!
Oh my, well that certainly seems like a good way to give VT a bad reputation! All I can say is that in AZ and the doctor I work with they operate a little differently. Once we have a determined that the patient is a VT candidate we schedule 1 VT session. We bill their insurance for coverage review and believe it or not lots of our patients get some part of it covered. We do not schedule any more sessions until we get an answer from insurance one way or another. Assuming the patient has no coverage we schedule ~10 sessions and they can prepay in 5 session blocks for a discount or pay per visit. The max out of pocket per visit is $290. Also if someone has been in VT for more than a year then its either plateaued or isn't working. Be wary of ODs that continue VT with a patient for an excessive amount of time!
I believe practices like $3K prepaid blocks are not good for the industry reputation. Also, VT on a 2 year old may be a pushing it a little UNLESS they are doing neuron signal therapy for Ambylopia. Surprisingly many doctors feel Amblyopia is a lost cause but there are many cases of even adults regaining sight in the amblyopic eye and many many childhood cases. Either way, the patient should get results and if not they should be advised to stop and not have to pay for services not rendered.
Its a tough spot to be in if you could benefit from VT but all the OD's around you are taking advantage of the situation.
Goodness me... That's kind of like opticians selling....Oh, never mind.
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