The Vision Health Month Summit took place on Monday, May 16 from 4:00 to 5:45 pm at Christ Church Cathedral in the Great Hall, located at 414 Sparks Street in Ottawa, Ontario.
TOPIC: Preventable Blindness Through a National Vision Health Strategy
SPEAKERS: Carol Hughes, MP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, Ontario, Assistant Deputy Speaker and Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole;
Dr. Keith Gordon, Senior Research Officer, Canadian Council of the Blind;
Dr. Chad Andrews, Director of Research and Policy, College of Optometrists of Ontario;
Doug Earle, President and CEO, Fighting Blindness Canada.
DATE: Monday, May 16, 2022
TIME: 4:00-5:45 pm EST
The Summit featured expert discussion to achieving the vision health community’s calls for:
- A National Vision Health Strategy that stresses prevention, research, treatment, and rehabilitation of vision loss, the implementation of which requires a coordinated effort on the part of federal, provincial, and territorial governments.
- It also stresses that Health Canada establish a Vision Health Desk within the Public Health Agency to clearly focus government efforts on the prevention, research, treatment, and rehabilitation of vision loss.
- Finally, it stresses the need for increased Vision Health Research Funding, which is presently woefully inadequate. Canada must invest to find treatments for blinding eye diseases and life-changing technologies for people currently living with vision loss.