There are some examples however, of eye health outreach services undermining local services and not always providing access to more vulnerable populations [ 127, 129].
In this way the routine services at primary and community level are sometimes augmented with specialist eye health outreach visits to more remote settings [ 30, 127].
A wide range of individuals from different socioeconomic and educational background present for eye evaluation during outreach programs.
There was one full time paramedic ophthalmic clinical officer working at the district hospital who was mainly responsible for the community outreach eye programme.
Health care workers were the source of awareness in 3.3% and outreach eye clinics were the source of information in 3.1% of cases (Table 4).
Further, many patients present despite little awareness of eye diseases because outreach clinics are one of the few free health services available to rural communities and the frequency of service provision is low.
Others have examined the cost of non-hospital eye-care services including primary eye care centres or outreach programs.
However, our pilot study may represent the worst case scenario with regards to near vision impairment because those who presented to the health outreach knew eye care would be provided as well as reading glasses at no charge.
In Nepal, this is accomplished through a combination of village-level primary eye care centres with outreach services such as school screening programs, and diagnostic-screening and treatment (DST) camps.
While organizations like Ms. Lacy's offer case management, support groups, counseling and other services for people with H.I.V. and AIDS, there also remains a strong focus on education and outreach, with an eye toward encouraging testing and preventing the disease from spreading further.
