Nebraska's visually impaired will have an opportunity to live better thanks to the University of Nebraska Medical Center's new Weigel Williamson Center for Visual Rehabilitation.
The $1.2 million center, which opened April 15, will focus on treating people with low vision, a condition where a person's poor eyesight can no longer be improved through regular glasses or surgery.
"They have difficulty functioning and carrying out daily living," said Pat Jones, the center's assistant coordinator.
More than six million people over age 55 have low vision, said Dr. John Shepherd, the center's director, which is commonly caused by disorders such as macular degeneration and glaucoma. The number is expected to double by 2030, which Shepherd said is one reason more low vision clinics are needed.
"There's no cure in sight for the condition, and it causes a lot of people to struggle," Shepherd said.
The new center replaced UNMC's existing low vision clinic, which Jones helped establish in 1983. Moving the clinic out of its old location in UNMC's eye clinic had been discussed for several years, Jones said, and construction of the clinic's new building began in 2006.
The center will try to offer comprehensive low vision care with new equipment, such as a scanning laser to identify which parts of the eye have the best remaining vision, and a new physical therapist who works with patients at the clinic and their homes.
To demonstrate different ways patients can modify their homes to help them cope with low vision, part of the center is modeled after a house, with rooms such as a living room and bathroom. The center demonstrates how to use different lighting fixtures and labels by touching and reading them.
Despite the increasing number of people with low vision, Shepherd said the condition has received little attention or funding from the medical community.
The lack of training doctors receive on the disorder during their residencies and the time consuming nature of treating low vision are some of the reason's the condition has received little attention, Shepherd said.
"Instead of spending minutes with patients," he said, "you spend hours with them, and eye care professionals don't see how they can fit that niche of patients into their schedule."
Shepherd, who used to provide comprehensive eye care, decided to focus on treating low vision after suffering chronic back and knee pain, which prevented him from performing surgery. While other medical fields help patients learn to live with their symptoms when treatments don't work, Shepherd said little emphasis is placed on this with eye care, which is something he wanted to change.
"I wouldn't have recognized that without my own journey through pain," Shepherd said.
While adjusting to vision loss can be difficult for many people, Shepherd said the center hopes to show them there are still ways they can live a relatively normal life.
"We live in a sighted world, and most people see the glass half empty," Shepherd said. "But they come in here, and everything here says the glass is still half full."
adamziegler@dailynebraskan.com
