A new collaboration is aiming to create a future where no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person loses their sight from preventable or treatable causes.
Western Australia Eye Health Equity Collaboration — a five-year partnership between Aboriginal Medical Services, The Fred Hollows Foundation, Lions Outback Vision and The University of Western Australia — is seeking to mobilise $13.25 million to strengthen community-led care, expand telehealth and outreach, improve access to cataract surgery and grow the Indigenous eye health workforce.
Over five years, the Collaboration aims to deliver 51,300 eye screenings, 27,000 tele-health consultations, 6,210 cataract surgeries and 432 outreach clinics, supporting 1,350 people through care coordination, and cut cataract waiting times by up to 50 per cent.
"Too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still experience avoidable vision loss," The Fred Hollows Foundation CEO Ross Piper said.
"It is not because treatment is unknown. It is because culturally-safe care is not consistently available.
"Our task now is to turn what has been built over decades into a system that will endure for generations."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults are three times more likely to experience vision impairment or blindness than other Australians, and the gap has barely moved since 2016.
Experts argue most of this vision loss is preventable or treatable.
The collaboration's partners say in Western Australia, vast distances, workforce shortages and fragmented care pathways mean too many people are diagnosed late or fall out of care, and there are no Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ophthalmologists or optometrists practising in the state.
"By combining evidence, innovation and culturally-informed approaches, we can generate the knowledge and solutions needed to improve access to high-quality eye care for First Nation peoples across Western Australia," said University of Western Australia School of Health and Clinical Sciences Dean, Khyber Alam.
The partnership combines the community leadership of Aboriginal Medical Services, the outreach and telehealth expertise of Lions Outback Vision, UWA's research capability and The Fred Hollows Foundation's health system-strengthening experience, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership and self-determination at the centre of its governance.
"No single organisation can close the eye health gap alone, but by combining community leadership, clinical excellence, research and systems expertise, this partnership has a rare opportunity to end this inequity," Lions Outback Vision director, Professor Angus Turner, said.
The Collaboration is inviting the Western Australia Government, philanthropic foundations, corporate partners and community investors to become founding partners, so that proven, culturally-safe approaches become part of how eye care is routinely planned, funded and delivered.
