Stroke can affect vision
Homonymous Hemianopia
-Homonymous Hemianopia Fact Sheet
Statistics & Projections of Neurological Vision Impairment:
1. Dept of Defense/ Veterans Affairs Statistics
- Polytrauma
- General Veterans Population
2. USA Statistics
3. UK Statistics
4. Australian Statistics
5. New Zealand Statistics
6. International Statistics
(Connect to Fact Sheet "Neurological Vision Impairment").
Implications of Neurological Vision Impairment on the Outcome of Standard Rehabilitation Programmes
Neurological Vision Impairment can seriously impede best outcomes for a client undergoing a rehabilitation program following an ABI . It is essential for the client's well being, attainment of rehabilitation goals, ongoing safety, discharge planning and assimilation back into regular daily activities that the NVI is addressed in the early stages of the rehabilitation process.
Following a CVA or ABI a person will receive the following therapy programs:
- Physiotherapy - loss of body functions or reduced movement.
- Occupational Therapy - upper body strength and activities of daily living.
- Speech Therapy - swallowing, word pronunciation, comprehension etc.
If the incidence of NVI is as previously stated then why is a Vision Therapy program not part of the therapy provided by an interdisciplinary team. How difficult must it be for a patient who has an unaddressed NVI, who is wheeled from the bedroom to the Physio dept, to the O.T department, and who is having difficulty recognising the environment through which he is passing or is only seeing a portion of the environment and can not visually make sense of the world he is seeing. Surely the vision loss has to impede on the whole of the rehabilitation process and the patient's best outcome and length of hospital stay.