Referral and Co-Management Information
Our office enjoys a strong collaborative relationship with a plethora of occupational therapists (OT’s) and therapy centers. At the core of these extensive relationships are the many patients that we have co-managed.
The three primary issues that OTs screen for visually are convergence, visual tracking accuracy, and the ability to track across the midline. Checklists of signs and symptoms are also very useful in identifying potential visual problems.
In some instances, referrals are made in a general way by the OT recommending in a report that the patient see a developmental optometrist. When the patient is an adult, typically in a rehabilitation setting, more direct referral is usually made.
Our philosophy is to obtain as much information as possible about the patient prior to our evaluation. The majority of patients that we see have already received occupational therapy services. When an OT suspects that visual dysfunction may be limiting further gains through occupational therapy, we then evaluate the patient.
After our evaluation we consider whether the patient has visual problems that can benefit from a lens prescription, perhaps involving prism, and/or optometric vision therapy.
Some patients will have visual sensory sensitivities that can be immediately improved through a lens or prism prescription. Other patients will require active office-based optometric vision therapy. Particularly when the OTs with whom we collaborate have a strong sensory integration background, we can assign out-of-office activities that help reinforce our office based therapy sessions.
Vision Therapy Exam at PressVision at Family Eyecare Associates
In select cases when the patient has not had OT services, we may recommend that prior to participating in optometric vision therapy the child will do better with OT guidance on building a better sensory platform. In other cases we may advise that the patient receives OT and optometric vision therapy services concurrently.
