NMMC Offers Help to People With Low Vision

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — About 25 percent of older adults will be effected by some sort of eye disease which can lead to low vision.

That is why for the first time ever the North Mississippi Medical Center’s Low Vision Rehabilitation Services offer a free community program at the NMMC Wellness Center entitled “What to Do When Your Eyeglasses Quit Working” Occupational Therapist Cheri Nipp, who coordinates the program says magnification and better lighting often help.

“Magnification can help because it provides enlargement so lighting can help some of the eye diseases to be able to respond better for things that they’re trying to see. And magnification can increase the size of something they’re looking at where eyeglasses can’t do that,” Nipp explains.

Nipp says there are numerous things on the market to help low vision sufferers. She says Macular Degeneration and Glaucoma are two of the most common eye diseases plaguing older people. She says rehabilitation helps patients make the most of their remaining vision and training may be provided in either the home the clinic or both.