THE VISUAL ADVICE CENTER, EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS - AN INTERVENIENT EVALUATION

On referral by ophthalmologists, the Visual Advice Centre provides the partially sighted with advice and prescriptions for illumination and visual aids. In this paper the multidisciplinary structure of the cent re is presented and the results obtained in the first 18 months of its existence are discussed. Two hundred and ninety-eight patients were r eferred to the centre in this period. The majority of these patients ( 79.2%) were older than 60 years. The main cause of visual impairment w as macular disease (45.3% of the patients). An interesting finding is that, although reading is an important need, reading problems only con stituted 35.9% of the total number of demands for help. From an inquir y into the situation of 125 patients 6 months after prescription, it a ppears that more than 90% of the aids prescribed are used regularly. T he conclusion is drawn that patients referred to the Visual Advice Cen tre benefit from the multi-disciplinary approach to their problems.