Jan. 3, 2025 — January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month, and Prevent Blindness is providing a range of free educational materials to not only educate the public but also assist eyecare professionals when discussing the disease with patients.
Prevent Blindness offers an extensive collection of resources on its dedicated webpage, including fact sheets and guides on glaucoma, a financial assistance resource list for patients, social media graphics for public awareness campaigns, and instructions on proper eye drop usage, available in English and Spanish, along with a demonstration video.
Additionally, the Focus on Eye Health Expert Series by Prevent Blindness provides further education with expert guests:
- “Glaucoma and Public Health” with Karen Allison, MD, MBA, FACS, chief of glaucoma at the Flaum Eye Institute, University of Rochester
- “Understanding Glaucoma” and “Information and Resources for Glaucoma Patients” with Constance Okeke, MD, MSCE, a glaucoma specialist at Virginia Eye Consultants and assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Eastern Virginia Medical School
- “Focus on Eye Health Patient Story: Glaucoma,” where Tasha R. Lockridge, associate director of eye health services at Prevent Blindness, shares her personal experiences with diagnosis and treatment
A recent study, “Prevalence of Glaucoma Among US Adults in 2022,” found that 4.22 million people in the U.S. have glaucoma, with 1.49 million cases affecting vision. The study, conducted by organizations including NORC at the University of Chicago and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlights significant demographic and geographic disparities. Prevent Blindness has created resources to disseminate these findings on a dedicated webpage. Additionally, a related video series addresses key public health questions, such as “Why is it important to know how many people have glaucoma?” with Shervonne Poleon, PhD, and “What can help people at risk for glaucoma?” with Mitzi Swift, clinical research coordinator at University of Alabama at Birmingham’s department of ophthalmology and visual sciences.
Prevent Blindness and Responsum Health have launched The Glaucoma Community, a multilingual online platform offering educational content, personalized newsfeeds, and moderated discussions. Available via web browser and mobile app, the platform also includes a dedicated Facebook group for members.
To promote this platform, Prevent Blindness has developed a toolkit for health care and public health professionals with materials such as flyers and social media content.
“Glaucoma can cause significant vision loss if left untreated. The good news is that with early detection, access to eye care, and the proper treatment, vision can be protected,” says Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. “Our various glaucoma resources are offered free to the public and professionals to help empower patients with the information needed to work with their eyecare professional to help protect vision from the ‘sneak thief of sight.’”