Eye Health Strategy

The eye health situation of Australia's Indigenous people living in remote areas is more comparable to that of some developing countries than to the rest of Australia. The presence of untreated cataract, trachoma and other preventable eye diseases is evidence of the poverty and isolation in which many Indigenous Australians live.

The Fred Hollows Foundation in Australia is working with local Aboriginal health services and the Northern Territory Government to find affordable and sustainable ways to provide eye health services throughout remote areas of the Northern Territory. 

One solution is the Foundation's Outreach Optometry Project in the Top End of the Northern Territory. This project provides access to optometry services for people in remote Aboriginal communities, including the Low Cost Spectacle Scheme.

On a larger scale, we have recently formed new partnerships to launch the Integrated Eye Health Strategy for Central Australia. This program aims to address the backlog of people in remote communities who need surgery for cataract, trachoma and other eye health problems.  

A consortium involving the Australian and Northern Territory Governments, Indigenous controlled health services, non government organizations and The Foundation have come together to improve delivery of eye health services for people in some of the most remote communities in Australia.
 
The program's reach takes in 1.6million square kilometres of Central Australia - making it, geographically, one of the largest integrated eye health programs in the world. This area includes the top of South Australia, three quarters of the Northern Territory, and into the Central Desert of Western Australia.
 
Around 55,000 Indigenous and non Indigenous people live in this area with an identified backlog of 330 people, which we know of, requiring immediate eye surgery.

Find out more about the Eye Health Boost in Central Australia.