MOREE Lions Club last week launched an important  program in Moree, with students at Moree Public School and Moree Christian School undergoing free eye and vision tests as part of the Lions Australia Eye Health Program.

The comprehensive vision screening program for children aged three years and older was developed in the United States 26 years ago and has been in Australia since 2006.

Moree Lions Club members underwent training to perform four assessments in accordance with the program, including visual acuity using a line symbol chart, colour perception using a basic colour screening book and depth perception using a stereo screening tool.

A state-of-the-art portable camera is also used to screen for near-sightedness, far-sightedness, blurred vision, unequal refractive error, eye misalignment and unequal pupil size.

The vision screening requires participating children to complete the four assessments, which only take a few minutes to perform.

At the completion of an assessment session, an individual result sheet is handed to a participating school’s nominated representative to forward the child’s parents or guardians.

Lions Club Australia’s district representative Geoff Kilmurray travelled from Maitland to help Moree Lions Club launch the program.

“We’ve been screening schools in the Hunter Valley region for about four years now,” Mr Kilmurray said.

“It’s very welcomed by parents and also teachers and principals. Teachers really do know the children who are struggling with their eyesight, and it’s not an easy conversation to have with mums and dads.”

Fifteen Year 2 students at Moree Public School were screened on Wednesday and 27 students at Moree Christian School were screened on Thursday.

Mr Kilmurray stressed the screenings were tests only.

“One of the main aspects of this program is that we do not diagnose eyes problems,” he said.

“We only detect and write referrals. Sometimes, when referrals get to an optometrist little things are found that would never have been picked up without a program like this.

“Some children are born with a sight defection of some description, and one in five children will see an optometrist at some stage of their childhood,” Mr Kilmurray said.

Moree Lions Club is now equipped to conduct future screenings at local and district schools.

“Moree Lion Beth Hearn got in touch with me about four months ago to see if we could train up her club,” Mr Kilmurray said.

“The Moree trainees are going very, very well and they won’t need me up here in the future,” he smiled.

Moree Christian School acting principal, Emily Cobb, said the eye screening program was well received by students.

“It is a great initiative that supports health for teenagers,” Mrs Cobb said.

“Often, children access eye-screening during the early years of primary school. However, if eye health hasn’t been flagged in earlier years, it can be something that slips to the back of a busy schedule.

“Having the Lions Club come to the school makes eye testing easy to access and helps remind teenagers of the importance of prioritising their health,” she said.

“It is wonderful to see these community members come and run this program in an enthusiastic way, encouraging our students in good health.

“We thank Moree Lions Club and look forward to this program running again in the future,” Mrs Cobb said.