Home And Community Care (HACC) workers training

The Vision Initiative is working with the Council on the Ageing (COTA), Western region to provide training to Home and Community Care (HACC)  workers.

HACC workers deliver direct care in the community to enable people who have a disability or require support services to remain in their own homes. On 19 August, the Vision Initiative coordinated an eye health and vision care education session for HACC workers in the Western Region as part of their accredited training program. Twelve participants attended the session.  

The course was delivered in two sessions, starting with an Eye health and vision care presentation by an optometrist from the Australian College of Optometry, Jennifer Caulfield. The presentation covered the five main causes of vision loss in Australia and how to refer clients to eye health and vision care services.

The second session was delivered by two representatives from Vision Australia. Penny Stevenson, an orientation and mobility instructor, along with her colleague Nick Jones, an orthopist, trained the attendees on greeting and guiding people with vision loss. A range of adaptive technology was also shown and information on the full range of Vision Australia’s services was given.

Early evaluation indicates an increase in knowledge and awareness of the attendees in relation to the difficulties that face people with vision loss. As most of them had clients with impaired vision they felt that information provided would enable them to better assist these clients and understand their vision problems.