[visionrehabtherapist] National Rehab Awareness Week
- From: steve kelley <skelley4195@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 05:25:32 -0700 (PDT)
Hi All!
I took the opportunity of National Rehab Awareness Week to draft the following
press release promoting, I hope, CVRTs. Please feel free to distribute it or
use in newsletters as you feel appropriate. To download a copy of the PR as a
Word doc please go to
http://www.lowvisiontech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/rehab_awareness_week_2013a.doc.
I'd welcome any comments readers have on this. Thanks!
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE…
Contact: Steven Kelley CRC, CVRT
207-774-6273 X3327
Email:
skelley4195@xxxxxxxxx
National
Rehabilitation Awareness Week is celebrated annually the third week of
September. During this week, according to the National Rehabilitation Awareness
Foundation, we “celebrate the powers of
rehabilitation and share the message that through rehab there is hope,
achievement and success!” This year’s Rehab Week celebration, September 15-21,
provides a wonderful opportunity to highlight one of the least known, highly
skilled rehab professionals, Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapists (CVRTs).
CVRTs
may be one of the best kept secrets for anyone experiencing a vision loss from
macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or many other eye
diseases. CVRTs often work in state agencies or non-profits, hold a Master’s
Degree and professional certification in Vision Rehabilitation, and adhere to a
rehabilitation or educational model of skills training. In Maine, you will find
CVRTs working statewide through The Iris Network or the Maine Division for the
Blind and Visually Impaired (DBVI).
A
CVRT typically provides training in a client’s home or a rehabilitation
facility, working on adaptive daily living skills (ADLs) covering a wide range
of everyday skills used at home, in the work place, and school. ADLs may
include such skills as reading, personal finance, home and business management,
access to computers and technology, cooking, and leisure activities, to name a
few. The CVRT develops a rehabilitation plan and goals, with the client, to
learn adaptive techniques and advocacy skills that will help compensate for a
loss of vision.
Why
the secrecy? It’s complicated, and one of the main reasons may be that most
private
insurance and Medicare do not cover services provided by Vision Rehab
Therapists. The cost for vision rehab services provided by a CVRT is provided
through the Federal Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) and individual
state funding, usually through the Departments of Education or Labor. In Maine,
for example, funding is through DBVI, housed in the Department of Labor. This
means, client’s have access to most vision rehab services, with a CVRT at
no-out-of-pocket cost! In addition,
clients do not need a doctor’s referral to get services, although this is often
how services begin.
Another
reason for the secrecy may be the historical tradition of the Vision Rehab
Therapist, who was until 2006, called a Rehab Teacher or RT. The first RTs in
the US began working with clients in Pennsylvania, and were called, “Home
Teachers of the Blind.” Often these
original home teachers had no specialized training other than adapting to their
own vision loss. Lessons at that time were based on access to the Bible through
some form of embossed type. In the 1930s-1940s more standardized training for
RTs was developed, and graduate level training began first at Michigan State in
the 1960s. While CVRTs today still teach braille to appropriate clients most
rehab training is with client’s experiencing varying degrees of vision loss
acquired from aging, disease, or accident. Although some of these client’s may
in fact be “legally blind,” most do not identify themselves as blind, nor
frankly, do they wish to have much to do with a “Teacher of the Blind.”
Today’s
Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist certainly recognizes the power of
rehabilitation to restore hope, achievement, success and renewed independence
for client’s with a wide range of vision loss. Recent advances in computers and
technology offer CVRTs a much broader array of tools and resources to work with
clients as they explore new skills for adapting to vision loss or “low vision.”
For more information, or to make a referral in Maine, call The Iris Network at
800-715-0097. For a national directory, go to the Academy for Certification of
Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals at
http://www.acvrep.org/directory.php.
Steven
Kelley CRC, CVRT is a Vision Rehabilitation Therapist and Rehab Counselor in
Portland,
Maine and maintains the website LowVisionTech.com, Contact him at
skelley4195@xxxxxxxxx
Steven Kelley CRC, CVRT
White Cane Walk for Independence
Team WhiteCane.ME
www.whitecane.me
Oct. 19, 2013 Monument Square
Portland, ME
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