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To Enhance Quality of Life for NYC’s Underserved Elderly, DPT Students “ViBE”
DPT Faculty at Touro School of Health Sciences Create ViBE Initiative to Promote Independence for Older Adults While Providing Invaluable Training for Students
While New York City’s 65-plus population has grown over 30% in the last decade, there remains a lack of necessary services available to the underserved elderly. To address this problem, a new research and educational initiative called the “Vision and Balance Education Initiative (ViBE)" has been launched by Touro School of Health Sciences Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Assistant Professor and Geriatric Board-Certified Physical Therapist, Dr. Leah Verebes, and Assistant Professor, Research Coordinator and Vision Scientist, Alla Chavarga.
ViBE provides important resources to older adults in the form of educational seminars on topics ranging from vision preservation techniques to home modifications designed to reduce the risk of falls caused by poor balance or impaired visual sensitivity. This unique dual-purpose initiative is also collecting vision and balance performance data to determine the relationship between visual ability and its impact on balance and fall risk in this population.
“Examining how vision affects balance is crucial as vision provides essential spatial information that helps the body maintain stability and coordination. By exploring this connection between visual function and balance, we hope to be able to better diagnose and treat balance disorders in older adults,” said Verebes.
“Traditional eye-chart tests of acuity may not be adequate for describing the full range of functional vision in this population,” said Chavarga. “As such, we are using more comprehensive measures of visual sensitivity as predictors of balance performance in the real world.”
DPT student researchers regularly visit the Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORC) located on the city’s Lower East Side, where they apply their training in real-world scenarios by conducting balance assessments and performing specialized vision tests to measure acuity, stereopsis, and contrast sensitivity.
"As a PT student, doing research with the participants at the NORC is a great learning experience,” said Yaileny Gonzalez, a School of Health Sciences DPT student. "Participating in VIBE has shown me never to underestimate what older adults can achieve with the right support."
While ViBE was created to help improve the quality of life and promote independent living for the underserved geriatric population in NYC, participating DPT students, in turn, are honing their skills as future practitioners. Currently, 40 participants are involved in ViBE and there are plans to bring the program to other local NORC facilities in the future.
Joseph Kim, another DPT student, said, "Applying measurable outcomes in real-life situations has prepared me to provide higher levels of patient care in my future career, while showing me the importance of fostering meaningful relationships with older adults.”
