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facilities and former O&M specialist. She is a member of the VEI advisory board, where she met Dr. Robinson, who had been brought in to expand low vision services. With Dr. Robinson’s knowledge base and Lebous’ engagement on the advisory board, the two began talking about how to expand O&M services. Lebous began reaching out to a number of people in the low vision and blindness field and connected with VisionServe Alliance, an organization of CEOs of major vision rehabilitation facilities across the country. It was VisionServe Alliance members who suggested Lebous contact Salus, where she approached Fabiana Perla, EdD, COMS, CLVR, chair of the University’s BLVS department, and Maffit to collaborate in the development of this described pilot project. It took about a year for the program to come to fruition. Started in August 2021, the eight week course combined online and in person instruction. Since this program was the first of its kind and the results were so positive, Lebous said Vanderbilt will continue to evaluate the referral base from Dr. Robinson to the PTs in order to continue to validate the importance of the project. In turn, she believes the next step will be to look for other sites where the program can be instituted, an initiative that she hopes will continue to include Salus and Vanderbilt.
The Orientation and Mobility Pilot: An Innovative Partnership with Vanderbilt
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oshua Robinson, OD, FAAO, director of Low Vision Rehabilitation at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute (VEI), put it succinctly when he said, “This is a big deal.” The “this” Dr. Robinson was talking about is a pilot program developed and implemented by Salus University’s Blindness and Low Vision Studies (BLVS) Department in partnership with Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, specifically for Vanderbilt’s on-staff Physical Therapists (PTs), that provided Orientation and Mobility (O&M) skills-based training PTs could offer their patients. “Unfortunately, there is frequently a
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SALUS UNIVERSITY ALUMNI MAGAZINE
dearth in the number of O&M instructors available, so people would wait a long time to have their immediate needs met,” said Jamie Maffit, MS, COMS, CLVT, director of Salus University’s O&M program. “The idea was to provide skillsbased training on selected indoor O&M skills for the physical therapists who are often the first rehabilitation professional to meet with the person post-low vision exam and have them provide those first-line basic level skills. And, then refer for further O&M if needed.” The idea to teach PTs to offer basic O&M instruction to patients was the brainchild of Carlene Lebous, a retired CEO and founder of vision rehabilitation
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY HOPE DALUSIO
