Posts Tagged ‘Sight for Students’

VSP & Transitions Optical Launch New Mobile Eyecare Clinic

Posted on March 16th, 2010 by Liz B.

Today at an unveiling ceremony in Pinellas Park, FL, VSP and Transitions Optical launched a new mobile clinic that will provide charitable eye exams and eyewear to people in need across the U.S.

Today, more than 50 pre-screened students from Azalea Elementary located in Pinellas County are the first to benefit from the new clinic. The evaluation process for students grades K-5 included initial screenings by Prevent Blindness Florida. Students who failed the screenings will be given comprehensive examinations in the clinic, staffed by VSP eye doctors. For students requiring prescription lenses, VSP and Transitions Optical will provide the students with complimentary eyewear fitted with Transitions® lenses.

A student of Azalea Elementary School was the first patient and is wearing the first glasses made on board the clinic in the finishing lab!

A student of Azalea Elementary School was the first patient and is wearing the first glasses made on board the clinic in the finishing lab!

This partnership marks another milestone in furthering the efforts of the VSP Mobile Eyes® Program. What started as an extension of relief efforts following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the program features two mobile eyecare clinics, each with two comprehensive exam rooms and full eyeglass dispensaries, which respond to disasters and assist people in need in communities throughout the U.S. The new clinic will be the third clinic in the fleet and has the unique feature of a finishing lab featuring full-service lens finishing equipment, donated by Santinelli International, providing patients with glasses on-site.

Rob Lynch, CEO of VSP Global and Dave Cole, Managing Director of Transitions Optical, unveil the new mobile clinic at Transitions headquarters in Pinellas Park, FL.

Rob Lynch, CEO of VSP Global and Dave Cole, Managing Director of Transitions Optical, unveil the new mobile clinic at Transitions headquarters in Pinellas Park, FL.

Here’s what VSP Global’s CEO Rob Lynch said about today’s events:

“Transitions and VSP both have a strong commitment to supporting the community and helping people see better. By leveraging the strength of our two organizations, and in partnership with our 26,000 private practice eye doctors, we will be able to extend our reach even further to help more people in need!”

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Celebrating Black History Month & Achievements in the Eyecare Industry

Posted on February 1st, 2010 by Jill N
Dr Poston

In 1972, Dr. Marvin Poston was the first African American named "Optometrist of the Year" by the American Optometric Association, the highest professional award from the AOA.

VSP is known for quality service – whether providing eyecare to underprivileged through our number of charitable programs, ensuring patients have access to high-quality vision services or providing doctors with the tools they need to maintain successful private practices. This dedication to service can be directly attributed to the core philosophies of VSP’s founders, one of whom was Dr. Marvin R. Poston.

In 1935, Dr. Poston was the first African American student admitted to the study of optometry at University of California, Berkeley. It took another 23 years for the second African American student to follow in his footsteps and graduate from the Berkeley School of Optometry. Dr. Poston later became the first African American licensed to practice optometry on the West Coast.

Nearly 55 years ago, Dr. Poston, along with several of his fellow optometrists, formed California Vision Services, now known as VSP Vision Care. The company originally was the first to offer a prepaid, vision benefit that provided high quality, cost-effective eyecare. VSP has since grown to become the largest not-for-profit visions benefits provider in the nation, covering 1 in 6 Americans.

Dr. Poston’s optometry practice flourished for four decades in Oakland and Danville, California but his reach extended far beyond those who visited his offices. Befitting one of the founders of a company that prides itself on community support, Dr. Poston began his own tradition of community outreach by establishing vision-screening programs for under-served children and adults. The Children’s Vision Center of the East Bay, the West Oakland Health Group and the East Bay Skill Center are just a few of the organizations that benefited from his efforts.

Dr. Poston received numerous honors during his career, including the Optometric Man of the Year award by the Alameda Contra Costa Optometric Society and Optometrist of the Year by the California Optometric Association and the American Optometric Association. He was also appointed to three terms on the California State Board of Optometry by governors Edmund G. “Pat” Brown and Ronald Reagan. In each of these areas, Dr. Poston was the first African American ever to be honored.

“He was a man of great integrity,” says Norm Jacoby, O.D., a former colleague from Encino, California. “He was very soft-spoken and intelligent, and you listened when he spoke. Marvin was conscious of what new graduates needed when getting started in private practice and that they needed all the help they could get.”

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An east coast transplant helps in her new community.

Posted on October 26th, 2009 by Jessica G.
Green Dot New York students, Lori, and Liz.

Green Dot New York students, Lori, and Liz.

 

 

Liz C. is a mobile response team member and is an Account Manger working within the VSP Field Sales department in our New Jersey regional office. She shares her recent first experience working on board SeeZar at the Green Dot Bronx event in New York.

 

 While I’ve been a part of the Mobile Response Team since it first started about two years ago, I just recently had the opportunity to attend my first event at the Green Dot Public School in NY this week. Having recently moved to the east coast about 8 months ago it was nice to participate in a local event! I was so excited that I couldn’t fall sleep until midnight the night before even though I had to wake up at 5am. I felt a kid waiting to go to Disneyland. After almost a year since I saw SeeZar last, I smiled big as I saw him drive up and we headed off to the GreenDot school located in the Bronx area.  

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Your Child's First Eye Exam: Six Easy Steps to Prepare for the Eye Doctor

Posted on August 31st, 2009 by Jessica G.
 We welcome Dr. David Kisling back to the VSP Blog. Dr. Kisling is a VSP network doctor and guest blogger. Today’s post helps parents take the anxiety out of a child’s pre-school eye examination.
David Kisling, O.D.

Dr. Kisling is a VSP network optometrist practicing in Ft. Collins, CO.

Is your preschooler or kindergartner ready for their first eye exam? There are critical times to have eye check ups, and this is when you as a parent typically start to have concerns that your child can see his or her best. The onset of the school year brings in many young children to the eye doctor’s office for the first time. Some of them are very anxious because their experience with doctors has normally been associated with sickness and pain.

You can help alleviate your child’s anxiety about going to see the optometrist with six easy steps:

  1. Explain this is a fun type of doctor’s office without shots. Advise them they will need to answer a few questions as best as they can and there are no right or wrong answers. Assure them if they do need glasses they will get to help pick out colors and shapes they like. If they need vision correction, give them some ownership of the process. If it is determined they need glasses, make positive statements of how much they will enjoy seeing the leaves on the trees and their favorite movies.
  2. Prepare them for eye drops. You can refer to them as tickle drops that make their eyes tickle for a few seconds. Yes, they do sting briefly, but when I tell children they will probably tickle a few seconds that is what usually happens. Right after drops are put in the eye I start asking children questions to distract them for the first minute or so. If they are thinking about something and answering questions they don’t feel the drops. You can do the same thing by barraging them with questions that have happy answers. Read more »

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Glasses too cool for school? Not if you need to learn.

Posted on August 13th, 2009 by Jessica G.
Jessica G. is a member of VSP's Corporate Public Relations team.

Jessica G. is a member of VSP's Corporate Public Relations team.

I was seven. Holding the book inches from the end of my nose, I was reading the newest Encyclopedia Brown. My parents witnessed my peculiar reading posture, and took me to an optometrist, where we found it was time for vision correction. All through elementary school, I wore glasses (bad ones), and survived the kind of taunts you would expect: “four eyes,” “nerd,” “dork.”

Jessicaglasses

Jessica G. in the 4th Grade.

Then I reached high school. As a textbook sullen teen, I decided that I was “soooo over” glasses and begged my parents for contact lenses. They weren’t sure I was ready to take the leap and wanted me to wait a couple more years before graduating to contacts. In a self-defeating act of defiance, I just stopped wearing my glasses. No glasses meant no blackboard in class, which meant that my attention span dropped as my grades followed suit. I began having headaches and eye strain from constantly squinting. But, hey, I thought I looked good.

So when a recently-released joint study by VSP and Prevent Blindness America showed that one in five teenagers have difficulty seeing in class, I believed it. Kids who can’t see what’s on the blackboard in class are at a serious disadvantage, and may be perceived to have learning disabilities or other behavioral problems, when it’s simply an issue of correcting their vision. These kids also often suffer from headaches and other symptoms of vision impairment. Read more »

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Giving the Gift of Healthy Eyes to Children

Posted on May 9th, 2007 by Rob L.

Cochran_lg.jpeg
Patricia Cochran
Vice President of Finance &
Chief Financial Officer

As VSP’s vice president of Finance and chief financial officer, I oversee VSP’s charitable donations to the community. A key focus of these efforts is expanding access to eyecare for underprivileged children through VSP’s Sight for Students program.

When considering the important factors in a child’s development, things like a sound education and a positive self-image immediately spring to mind. Healthy vision plays a significant role in both of these aspects, for if a student cannot clearly see the blackboard or struggles to read the words in their books, their classroom performance and self-confidence are sure to suffer.

According to a 2007 VSP survey, 65 percent of children nationwide have not had an eye exam in the last 12 months. When low-income families must chose between living expenses and eyecare, these numbers increase further, resulting in tens of thousands of children each year who do not receive the eyecare that they require.

In response to this national need, VSP Vision Care launched the Sight for Students program in 1997 to provide uninsured and low-income students with free comprehensive eye exams and eyeglasses. Today, the program continues to thrive, and through VSP’s annual investment of $12 million, more than 50,000 children receive vital eyecare each year at no cost. I am pleased to announce that as of May 2007, VSP’s national network of eye doctors has served more than 400,000 disadvantaged children through the Sight for Students program.

As a not-for-profit, community benefit company, VSP can make these investments in our community to increase access to care. This is absolutely unique among vision care plans and ranks VSP among the leaders in all of healthcare.

Studies show that poor grades and behavior problems can be attributed to vision impairment. The eye exams provided through Sight for Students help diagnose vision problems and provide children with the vision correction that they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond. When eye exams unlock a struggling student’s potential, they open doors to better learning and new opportunities.

Coupled with our commitment to Sight for Students, VSP supports legislation to increase federal funding for children’s eye exams as a means to improve learning for all children. Expanding eye exams to all children would have a tremendous impact on the health and progress of America ’s young students.

Testimonials from the Sight for Students program show time and time again how a comprehensive eye exam can be a life-changing event for a child. Making a difference in other people’s lives is a core value at VSP, and we will continue to support efforts that help ensure that every child has the opportunity to rise to the head of the class. I look forward to your thoughts on Sight for Students and the importance of eye exams for all children.

─ Patricia

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