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Department of Clinical Vision Sciences Content Approved by:
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Department of Clinical Vision Sciences What does an Orthoptist do? Orthoptics is an allied health profession concerned with disorders of vision and eye movements. Orthoptists are university-trained clinicians who diagnose and provide non-surgical management of disorders of eye movements and associated vision defects. Non-surgical management includes muscle exercise regimes, use of prisms and lenses and occlusion therapy. The aim of orthoptic treatment is to relieve symptoms and enhance vision performance. Orthoptists also perform highly specialised tests of vision function to assist in diagnosis and management of eye disease. Orthoptists assist in the diagnosis and management of eye disease such as glaucoma and eye disease associated with general diseases such as diabetes. Orthoptic assessment of vision can assist in the diagnosis of neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Orthoptists assess functional vision and provide vision rehabilitation. They provide rehabilitation programs to assist persons with vision impairment make the best use of remaining vision to maintain independent function. Orthoptists assess the vision loss associated with stroke or head injury and provide appropriate rehabilitation strategies. They also assess functional vision of children with multiple handicaps to assist with educational programming. Some orthoptists may work in community health providing vision screening programs and patient education. Some orthoptists work in research centres including research in relation to vision and eye disease. Employment Opportunities Orthoptists can work in a variety of places. They can work in their own private practice, or with an ophthalmologist or a neurologist in a clinic or a private hospital. Opportunities exist in public hospitals in outpatient eye clinics and in the community in community health centres and day care centres. They can assist with vision screening programs in schools, pre-schools, and childcare centres and in the workplace. Orthoptists interested in rehabilitation can work in specialist centres for the visually impaired and multi-handicapped persons. Generally, employment opportunities are good for graduates. There is a shortage of orthoptists in regional areas and states other than in the metropolitan areas of Victoria and New South Wales. There is no orthoptic training program in New Zealand. Japan has the only training program in Asia. Last Updated:May 29, 2002 |
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