Sight Savers of America

Sight Savers America's three programs serve individuals in 16 states, all at no cost for underserved children, adults and their families. The children's eye care program focuses on providing case managed follow-up eye care to children failing a vison screening in school or to those referred by a parent/family member, school nurse, teacher/administrator, doctor or other community member. Children referred are individually case managed to ensure they are diagnosed as quickly as possible and receive all necessary treatments. Ssa establishes a local eye care home in order to provide recurrent care throughout childhood. To date, more than 815,000 children have been helped through the eye care program. Children statewide in al, ms and sc, and in parts of tn, ga, tx, and nc received comprehensive eye exams, eyeglasses, medications, surgeries, other treatments and one-on-one case management support. Transportation and insurance needs are met where appropriate. During the 22/23 school year, these services were provided to 47,965 children. The low vision & blindness program focuses on helping children and adults who have a severe visual impairment or blindness and more than 4,100 individuals have been referred to date. Those referred are individually case managed to receive evaluations and recommendations of high-tech assistive technolgy or blind aids from low vision/blindness experts. Equipment and training is provided with the appropriate follow-up to ensure meaningful outcomes are accomplished. High-tech vision and blind aids, including high-tech video magnifiers, and other assistive technology have been provided in the homes of over 3,600 recipients in 16 states (al, ar, ms, tx, ga, tn, ca, il, fl, la, hi, ak, oh, sc, nc, and ny). During the 2022/23 year, 409 individuals received 349 high-tech vision and blind aids as well as 152 optical devices (some recipients received more than one aid). The screening program conducts vision screenings in al, ga, ms and tx. The plusoptix screener efficiently screens children in a non-invasive manner and captures refraction data in less than one second, ensuring students miss a minimal amount of classroom time. Approximately 25% of children screened need an eye exam and are referred to the children's eye care program for case management within one day. Since the program's inception, over 181,000 children have been screened. During the 2022/23 school year, 21,305 children were vision screened and 7,163 were referred for comprehensive follow-up. Additionally, the screening program provides head-to-toe school-based health screenings, identifying undiagnosed and unmet medical concerns for preschool-12th grade students in underserved areas of Alabama. The screenings include: height & weight with bmi, chest and abdomen examination, skin & musculoskeletal, eyes, ears, nose and throat examinations, dental, vision, hearing glucose, vital signs, scoliosis and cholesterol. Since the program's inception, over 198,000 children have been screened. During the 2022/23 school year, 13,691 children were screened across 15 Alabama counties.