What we deliver
Training that turns awareness into something staff can do on Monday.
Solutions in Low Vision supports facilities and agencies working in post-acute care, usually through hospitals and their networks of skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies. The aim is practical: fewer falls, fewer readmissions and better outcomes for patients who are losing their sight.
Five areas
What the training covers.
Tools that give a task back
Assistive Technology
Many patients can keep reading, keep doing needlepoint, keep crocheting, and keep up with their own correspondence, provided somebody puts the right tool in their hands and shows them how it works. Staff learn closed circuit televisions, lighted magnifiers, screen reading software and a range of everyday aids.
What staff learn
- Closed circuit televisions and desktop video magnifiers
- Lighted and handheld magnifiers, and how to match power to the task
- Screen reading and magnification software on a phone, tablet or computer
- Talking clocks, labels, medication organizers and large print materials
- How to tell when a tool is wrong for the patient rather than the patient being wrong for the tool
Moving through a room without fear
Orientation and Mobility
Orientation and mobility is how a person with low vision learns to navigate their environment using the senses they still have. Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialists train post-acute staff in seminars and quarterly follow up sessions, with continued support by email and phone between visits.
What staff learn
- Sighted guide technique, so staff can walk with a patient safely and without taking over
- Trailing, landmarks and cues that let a patient re-orient themselves in a room
- Contrast and lighting changes that make thresholds, steps and doorways visible again
- Recognizing the specific hazards created by lost contrast sensitivity
- When to refer to a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist
The ordinary things that stop being ordinary
Activities of Daily Living
Teachers of the Visually Impaired and Low Vision Therapists run training sessions where post-acute staff learn how to support patients returning home so they can keep living as independently as possible. Everyday tasks get harder as vision diminishes, and most of that is solvable with technique rather than equipment.
What staff learn
- Kitchen safety, pouring, measuring and identifying food by touch and placement
- Labeling and organizing medication so doses are not confused
- Dressing, grooming and matching clothing without relying on color
- Marking appliances and controls so settings can be found by feel
- Organizing a home so that things stay findable
A ten minute test that changes what staff notice
Color Deficiency Screening
Many patients losing vision also lose color discrimination, and that loss hides the conditions color is the warning for. Solutions in Low Vision provides an online color deficiency screening that can be run on every patient, which can lead to early detection of previously undiagnosed disease.
What staff learn
- Pressure sores, rashes and skin color changes caught earlier
- Jaundice and cyanosis noticed before they become an admission
- Blood or bile in urine recognized rather than missed
- Previously undiagnosed glaucoma, diabetes, macular degeneration and cataracts surfaced
- Screening records and outcomes you can show a surveyor
Where this fits
This runs alongside the color screening program, so the same staff who are trained here are also the ones running screenings and seeing the results come back.
Training that does not stop at the seminar
Ongoing Support
Clients in the post-acute community have continued access to low vision professionals for training, professional development and educational resources. New staff arrive, patients change, and questions come up months after a seminar. That is when support actually matters.
What staff learn
- Quarterly follow up sessions with the staff who took the original training
- Email and phone access to low vision professionals between visits
- Online resources staff can reference at the point of care
- Refresher training as teams turn over
- Help interpreting screening results and deciding what to do next
Where this fits
This runs alongside the color screening program, so the same staff who are trained here are also the ones running screenings and seeing the results come back.
Why it matters now
The IMPACT Act changed how your outcomes are measured.
Since 2014, CMS has rated post-acute providers on outcomes, and mobility is part of that picture. Patients with low vision are disproportionately the ones who fall, who are readmitted, and who misidentify medication. Training staff is the cheapest lever you have.
Older adults with low vision are 31% more likely to experience the effects of depression, and face an increased risk of falls and fractures that make hospital or nursing home admission more likely. See the bibliography for the studies behind that.