A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON ROLE OF GRIEF COUNSELORS & TRAINED NURSES AND THEIR IMPACT ON INCREASING AND SUSTAINING EYE DONATION IN AN INSTITUTIONAL SETTINGS IN INDIA
Journal Title: Journal of Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences - Year 2019, Vol 5, Issue 1
Abstract
Abstract The burden of corneal blindness is increasing in India and estimates currently suggest that there are 1.6 Million people suffering from the disorder. Despite being treatable, the number of corneally blind people during 2005 and 2011 has grown by 0.34 Million in India. This suggests that the treatment of corneal blindness is currently taking place much slower than its incidence. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that there is a huge mismatch between the total corneas collected and that required for transplantation. In order to increase the number of cornea collections WHO and AIIMS undertook this project to examine and evaluate how effective grief counselors can be in the collection of eyes in comparison to trained nurses. Before the project was initiated there were already 4 senior grief counselors working with the national eye bank. The project involved appointing 5 additional junior grief counselors to analyze their impact in cornea collection. During July-November 2011, it was found that the number of cornea collections were directly proportional to the number of grief counselors. Results also suggested that the significance of grief counselors in cornea collections was more than that of hospital staff. This can be attributed to the fact that grief counselors are appointed specifically for cornea collection while hospital staff can only spend a limited time on counseling for cornea collection. Background Blindness continues to be one of the major public health problemsin developing Countries like India and one of the leading causes of blindness is Corneal Blindness and Corneal Transplantation is helpful in visually rehabilitating such cases [1][2]. Corneal blindness is more common in developing nations as compared to developed nations and have significant impact on the lives of those affected by it[3]. Out of 45 million cases of blindness worldwide, there are 12 million cases in India and out of them 1% is due to Corneal Blindness [4]. It is estimated that by 2020 India will have approximately 10.6 million cases of unilateral corneal blindness[5]. However, there is an acute shortage of healthy, transplantable corneal tissue all over the world. We need 1, 00,000 corneal transplants every year, but only around 20,000 corneal transplantation surgeries (20%) are being performed[3]. It is also estimated that 90% of corneal blindness is among the economically poor which demands pro-poor policies/strategies in managing this need.
Authors and Affiliations
Radhika Tandon
Keywords
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