Identifying best-practice features of diabetic retinopathy treatment models for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Objective: Indigenous Australians are nearly three times more likely to have diabetes than non-Indigenous Australians. The prevalence of diabetes-related vision impairment for Indigenous Australians is 5.5% compared to 1.

Lessons learned from a subsidised spectacles scheme aiming to improve eye health in Aboriginal people in Victoria, Australia.

The Victorian Aboriginal Spectacles Subsidy Scheme (VASSS) aimed to improve access to visual aids and eye care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victorians. The VASSS started in July 2010 and has operated continually since. In 2016, we explored the collaborations, planning, adaptations and performance of the VASSS over the first 6 years by reviewing and analysing service data, as well as data from semistructured interviews, focus groups and surveys.

Cataract surgery and Indigenous eye care: A review.

Cataract remains the leading cause of blindness in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and is still a major cause of vision loss. The pathway of care to cataract surgery has many potential gaps and barriers. Although there has been a significant increase in services over the last few years, there is still the urgent need to facilitate timely and affordable cataract surgery.

Breaking down barriers to eye care for Indigenous people: a new scheme for delivery of eye care in Victoria.

This report describes the implementation of and outcomes from a new spectacle subsidy scheme and de-centralised care options for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Victoria, Australia. The Victorian Aboriginal Spectacle Subsidy Scheme (VASSS) commenced in 2010, as an additional subsidy to the long-established Victorian Eyecare Service (VES). The Victorian Aboriginal Spectacle Subsidy Scheme aimed to improve access to and uptake of affordable spectacles and eye examinations by Indigenous Victorians.

Impact of diabetes on eye care service needs: the National Indigenous Eye Health Survey.

Background: To assess the proportion of Australian Indigenous adults who require eye care services (separately among those with and without diabetes) and determine implications for eye care service planning.

Design: The National Indigenous Eye Health Survey (NIEHS) was a population-based study of 30 randomly selected geographical areas.

Participants: The NIEHS included 1189 Indigenous adults aged 40-80 years.

Australian Football League clinics promoting health, hygiene and trachoma elimination: the Northern Territory experience.

Australia is the only developed country to suffer trachoma and it is only found in remote Indigenous communities. In 2009, trachoma prevalence was 14%, but through screening, treatment and health promotion, rates had fallen to 4% in 2012. More work needs to be done to sustain these declining rates.

How Australian and New Zealand schools of optometry prepare students for culturally competent practice.

Background: This study is an investigation of how Australian and New Zealand schools of optometry prepare students for culturally competent practice. The aims are: (1) to review how optometric courses and educators teach and prepare their students to work with culturally diverse patients; and (2) to determine the demographic characteristics of current optometric students and obtain their views on cultural diversity.

Methods: All Australian and New Zealand schools of optometry were invited to participate in the study.

Cost of close the gap for vision of Indigenous Australians: On estimating the extra resources required.

Objective: To estimate the costs of the extra resources required to close the gap of vision between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Design: Constructing comprehensive eye care pathways for Indigenous Australians with their related probabilities, to capture full eye care usage compared with current usage rate for cataract surgery, refractive error and diabetic retinopathy using the best available data.

Setting: Urban and remote regions of Australia.

Close the gap for vision: The key is to invest on coordination.

Objective: The study aims to estimate costs required for coordination and case management activities support access to treatment for the three most common eye conditions among Indigenous Australians, cataract, refractive error and diabetic retinopathy.

Design: Coordination activities were identified using in-depth interviews, focus groups and face-to-face consultations. Data were collected at 21 sites across Australia.

Local co-ordination and case management can enhance Indigenous eye care--a qualitative study.

Background: Indigenous adults suffer six times more blindness than other Australians but 94% of this vision loss is unnecessary being preventable or treatable. We have explored the barriers and solutions to improve Indigenous eye health and proposed significant system changes required to close the gap for Indigenous eye health. This paper aims to identify the local co-ordination and case management requirements necessary to improve eye care for Indigenous Australians.

Improving eye care for Indigenous Australians in primary health care settings.

Background: This paper aims to assess the barriers and solutions to the delivery of eye care in primary care settings and solutions to improve the use of comprehensive eye care among Indigenous Australians.

Design, Setting, Participants: Qualitative, mixed method study participants include Aboriginal community members, and health and eye care providers in urban, rural and remote settings.

Main Outcome Measures: Present evidence for health care providers to better understand and address some of the barriers that limit access to eye care in primary care settings.

Trachoma in Australia: an update.

In 2001, one of the authors wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia about trachoma explaining that Australia is the only developed country in the world where blinding trachoma still exists. Ten years later, the same is still true, but there is some progress and the situation in Australia is starting to change. However, this progress has been somewhat glacial, especially compared with the rapid changes being made in other 'undeveloped' parts of the world.

Correcting Indigenous Australians' refractive error and presbyopia.

Background: This paper aims to identify the barriers and solutions for refractive error and presbyopia vision correction for Indigenous Australians.

Design: A qualitative study, using semistructured interviews, focus groups, stakeholder workshops and consultation, conducted in community, private practice, hospital, non-government organization and government settings.

Participants: Five hundred and thirty-one people participated in consultations.

Why optometry must work from urban and regional Aboriginal Health Services.

The gap in vision and ocular health between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and other Australians continues to be significant, yet three-quarters of the identified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population live in urban and regional areas of Australia where existing eye-care services are available. In urban Australia, an improvement in the access and use of eye-health services is required to provide equitable eye-care outcomes for Australia's Indigenous peoples. Optometric services need to be available within Aboriginal Health Services in urban areas to effectively close the gap for vision.

Indigenous access to cataract surgery: an assessment of the barriers and solutions within the Australian health system.

Background: To identify barriers in the health systems that limit access to cataract surgery for Indigenous Australians and present strategies to overcome these barriers.

Design: Interview and focus group-based qualitative study.

Participants: Five hundred thirty participants were consulted in semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and stakeholder workshops.