Casey Community Outreach Program
History
Since 2010, the OHSU Casey Eye Institute’s Community Outreach Program has been making a meaningful impact by providing essential eye care to individuals with limited or no access through its community-based service model thanks to the ongoing support of compassionate donors and dedicated volunteers. Since then, Casey’s Community Outreach Program has provided free vision screenings to over 13,000 individuals in local communities from Oregon's rural landscapes and rugged coastline to its urban centers.
2024 Community and Global Outreach Impact Report
Thanks to our generous donors and volunteers, the community and global programs at OHSU Casey Eye Institute are making a big impact on improving access to high-quality eye care in Oregon and beyond. Through sustained community-driven partnerships, these programs are creating extensive access points for vision care directly where people live, work, and play, drastically improving access to vital vision saving care across Oregon and around the world!
The problem: Ending preventable blindness
For some people, access to high quality medical care is beyond their reach. The OHSU Casey Community Outreach Program brings eye care into focus by providing free vision screenings to adults that identify common preventable and treatable eye conditions that often cause blindness.
The solution: The Oregon Vision Health Network
In 2022, the program officially launched the Oregon Vision Health Network (OVHN), integrating mobile outreach, telehealth screening, and training local health advocates as Vision Health Navigators. This innovative model combines technology and community-based partnerships to expand access to eye care, improve health outcomes, promote health literacy, and connect underserved communities to critical vison services at the local level. Together, we are promoting early detection and enhanced care coordination – an essential steps to eliminating preventable blindness in Oregon.
There are three key parts that make up the OVHN:
Training Vision Health Navigators
Community health workers from local health organizations are trained as Vision Health Navigators so they can use advanced vision imaging equipment, deliver vision health education specific to their community, and effectively screen for vision impairment, while receiving technical and medical support by Casey Eye Institute Outreach. This allows patients to receive high quality eye care right where they are and where they feel comfortable.
Supporting telehealth sites
Casey Eye Institute has provided the equipment, staff and health record systems to screen people in their own communities. Casey Eye Institute doctors are able to review the images of the eye remotely and recommend care if needed.
The Casey Community Outreach Program
The Casey Community Outreach Program provides free vision screenings with two mobile clinics. Through partnerships with community agencies serving low-income, uninsured and underinsured Oregonians, the Casey Community Outreach Program offers free, on-site vision screenings at an expanding network of community locations. Participants are examined at no cost, and community partners assist with follow-up for individuals in need of assistance in purchasing glasses or access to further medical support. This strong community partnership model links people with high quality vision health services through existing agencies and resources in their community.
Thank you to our generous donors
OVHN is supported by the generous donations of an anonymous donors, The Roundhouse Foundation and Heather Killough. This network will be sustained for a minimum of five years and intends to partner with eight community partner sites.
Volunteer
Entirely donor funded, the Casey Community Outreach Program is staffed by volunteer doctors, technicians, students and community members dedicated to eliminating preventable blindness in Oregon. Our 33-foot fully outfitted mobile ophthalmology unit provides free medical vision screenings in partnership with local agencies all around the state to end preventable blindness in Oregon.
Why I volunteer
"Volunteering with the Casey Outreach Program helps me feel better about the work that I do day-to-day. We can’t always help the people who need it most in our daily work. Often times I get caught up in the complexity of the situation and challenging cases. This program helps bring me back to providing ‘basic’ eye care and makes me feel that I can help some of those people who need it as close to their own place as possible."
"From the very first day, I was hooked. Not only by the palpable gratitude of the participants, but also dedication of Verian, the staff, and other volunteers - a dedication that I hope to emulate in my own career."
"I think the Casey Community Outreach Program is a really unique experience that makes Casey stand out from other institutions, and speaks to the great culture we have here."
"Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to participate with the outreach clinic many times, and it has invariably been a great experience. I’m always energized by spending time with my fellow volunteers, and am consistently inspired by their passion for service. The patients are also incredibly grateful, and I find it very rewarding to be able to provide access to eye care for patients in need, many of whom have never had an eye exam before."