Mental Health State Essay -- Healthcare, Vision, Mental Health

Low vision assessments as a routine normally include case history and psychophysical measurements. By adding mental health state and low vision quality of life questionnaires during case history, a better quality of low vision rehabilitation can be offered to low vision patients. Low vision rehabilitation is very rewarding because much can be offered to assist the low vision patients. We report a 43-years old female who had tractional retinal detachment secondary to diabetic retinopathy and how low vision rehabilitation can be improved by adding simple steps incorporating mental health state and quality of life questionnaire which can be measured objectively during case history in low vision assessment. As this case report shows, recognition of the mental health and quality of life impact on visual impairment is very critical to institution of appropriate rehabilitation and referral for low vision patients. Introduction Currently, low vision assessment routine normally involved mainly the case history which includes the patient’s main complained, patient’s requirements, patient’s ocular history, patient’s general health plus medication, family history of ocular diseases and general health. The psychophysics measurement such as visual acuity (VA), refraction, visual field measurement, contrast sensitivity function test, assessment of anterior and posterior part of the eyes were the common examination conducted during low vision assessment (Jackson & Wolffsohn 2007). However, mental health state i.e The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) (Ramli et al. 2007) and Low Vision Quality of Life Questionnaires (LVQoL) (Walffsohn & Cochrane 2000) are not routine in case history during low vision assessment at Low Vision Clinic, U... ...sians. Asia Pac J Public Health 21(1):43-50. 12. Norhani, M. & Suzainah, Y. 1998. Profile of low vision clinic population. Clinical and Experimental Optometry 81(5):198-202 13. Ramli, M., Mohd Ariff, F. & Zaini, Z. Translation, validation and psychometric properties of Bahasa Malaysia version of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS). ASEAN Journal Psychiatry 8(2):82-89 14. Wolffsohn, J. S. & Cochrane, A. L. 2000. Design of the Low Vision Quality-of-Life Questionnaire (LVQOL) and Measuring the Outcome of Low-vision Rehabilitation. American Journal of Ophthalmology. 130(6):793-802. 15. Zainal, M., Ismail, S. M., Ropilah, A. R., Elias, H., Arumugan, G., Alias, D., Fathilah, J. Lim, T. O., Ding, L. M. & Goh, P. P. 2002. Prevalence of blindness and low vision in Malaysian population: results from the National Eye Survey 1996. Br J Ophthalmol. 86:951-956