Saturday, 31 July, 2010

Sound Tracks (details)

We have known for more than twenty years – since those first remarkable medical findings by neuroscientists at the Harvard Medical School – that pock marked cells in the magnocellular system are responsible for the blurred vision which tests as normal in the UK basic state eye examination.

And known how to treat it.

It is, however, only now that some UK health authorities are starting to put in place the proper, comprehensive response, with others, still unfortunately some way from facing up to the challenge.

In Scotland more and more teachers, educational psychologists, occupational therapists and even social workers know that they need to get their patients with specific learning difficulties checked out for binocular instability via a detailed eye examination.

In some places such as south Ayrshire, Primary 5 pupils with learning difficulties are automatically referred to a hospital based orthoptist for screening. ( BBC Scotland – The Investigation).

However with only 90 or so orthoptists currently practising in Scotland clearly there are more black spots than not where many, many sufferers of BI are still going undiagnosed, and confounding their professional consultants who have not been notified by the health authorities about this potential source of diagnosis and treatment for an underlying organic problem.

Scotland is, however, in much better shape than our English cousins south of the border. With more than 50 million people in the population, and already a step change behind Scotland in eye care provision, getting into the 1950s is going to be the problem for the Department of Health.

Of course the UK is not alone in dealing with this crucial health issue. Far from it. There are countless sufferers, young and old, of binocular instability all over the world. In the United States many people who have been treated for visual stress will not be aware that they may also be suffering from BI.

But hopefully – now that www.2020true.com can be read worldwide – more and more local, regional and national authorities will start to recognise and resolve the problems in their own populations.

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