The Vision Council Foundation has expanded its See What Matters initiative with a new back-to-school campaign. These new resources are focused on helping families prioritize comprehensive eye exams and healthy vision habits as students return to the classroom.
See What Matters – Empowering Education addresses several vision-related issues that can affect children and learning, including childhood myopia, digital eye strain, and dry eye associated with screen use. The Foundation reports that myopia currently affects approximately 30% of children and adolescents in the U.S.
Resources for Practices and More
As part of the campaign, The Vision Council Foundation has released free downloadable toolkits tailored to eye care providers as well as schools and parents.
For eye care professionals, the toolkit includes printable materials and social media content that can be shared with patients in the practice and online. Resources for schools and parents include information about childhood myopia, a family eye exam checklist, and a postcard school nurses can use to share vision screening results.
The new materials are the second set of resources released through See What Matters, The Vision Council Foundation’s broader initiative providing educational materials to promote vision health among people of all ages.
Additional Insights
According to research from The Vision Council’s Focused inSights: Provider Approaches to Myopia Management, 91% of eye care providers recommend myopia screening at least annually. Providers identified excessive screen time, genetics, and insufficient outdoor activity as the leading risk factors for myopia onset.
According to Ashley Mills, CEO of The Vision Council and The Vision Council Foundation, comprehensive eye exams are one of the simplest things to do to help children start the school year.
“Eye exams belong on every family’s back-to-school checklist, right alongside shopping for new clothes and school supplies,” says Mills. “Children deserve the best possible chance to learn and thrive in school, and that starts with making sure they go into the school year seeing their best.”