The goal of the J R McKenzie Trust is to improve the quality of life for New Zealanders who have special needs or who face disadvantage. The majority of funding each year is provided to hundreds of community based organisations active in community development, social services and health. The remainder of funds distributed annually is reserved for multi-year focused programmes that aim to make a more significant contribution in a particular field.

Establishment of See Here

In 2005, the Trust’s attention was drawn to the needs of New Zealand children, particularly those under 15, with mild and moderate vision and hearing deficits. Research was commissioned in this area, including a literature review and interviews with a selection of key people with relevant knowledge. This research concluded that limited resources seem to be available for children with vision impairment, particularly those with less severe impairments.

The Trust’s Youth Education Fund had also alerted the Trust to the increasing demand for assistance with funding for children’s glasses. After a process of narrowing the options, agreement was reached that a project for vision related issues in children should be established.

A number of approaches were considered by See Here, and it was decided that an evidence-based model similar to that used by Project HIEDI (Hearing Impairment: Early Detection and Intervention) was well aligned with the purpose and values associated with the JR McKenzie Trust’s childhood vision project.

A project team was formed in April 2006 and the project was named See Here in 2007. Work has intensified during the past year and has focused on collecting information relating to policy and practice and on understanding the views of key stakeholders in order to develop recommendations for the improvement of services for this group of children.

Key Documents
This project is focused on seeing changes in policy relevant to children with mild and moderate vision impairment.

The See Here team, with the help of stakeholders, has produced two key documents which were released in July 2008. These documents have developed to present the evidence for a review of policies relevant to children with mild and moderate vision impairment.

The evidence-based case is a relatively long and detailed document, which may not be of interest to all readers, so See Here has also produced a summary booklet for much wider distribution. These documents are available in two formats, a PDF version and a Microsoft Word version which is designed for those with screen readers in mind.

• The See Here evidence-based case: PDF Version (1599KB)
  
• See Here evidence-based case: Word Version (595KB)                           
• The See Here Summary Booklet: PDF Version (597KB)
  
• The See Here Summary Booklet: Word Version (62KB)

Updates

Click here to read the seventh, and most recent update on the See Here project - November 2008. 

For earlier updates, click below: 

• See Here Update 1 - July 2007  (PDF, 146KB).
• See Here Update 2 - September 2007 (PDF, 162KB).
• See Here Update 3 - November 2007 (PDF, 152KB).
• See Here Update 4 - March 2008 (PDF, 213KB).
  
• See Here Update 5 - July 2008 (134KB)
  
• See Here Update 6 - August 2008 (263KB)
  

If you do not have a PDF viewer you can download Adobe Reader from here.

Other documents

Here are some other relevant documents:

• See Here surveyed the members of Parents of Vision Impaired (PVI) in late 2007 to better understand their views on vision screening and government funding for spectacles. 133 families replied. The results of this research can be found here.
  
• See Here's Submission to the Well Child/Tamariki Ora Framework review (August 2007, PDF file, 62KB).
• The Ministry of Health's Summary of submissions on its Preferred Options Paper regarding the Well Child/Tamariki Ora Framework review (October 2007, PDF, 376KB).
• the Consensus statement "Early Identification of and Intervention for children with Vision Impairment".  This has been prepared by See Here to summarise what evidence suggests is desirable, and the views of people with an interest in making life better for children with vision problems. (November 2007, PDF, 79KB).
  

See Here Consensus Statement – Endorsements

We are still receiving endorsements to our Consensus Statement, including one from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (New Zealand Branch) and from the Brainwave Trust. We are very grateful for these endorsements.

All endorsements received after our documents were printed will be included on this webpage. If your organisation would like to endorse the Consensus Statement, or formalise its support for See Here, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

More information

For more information on the project, or to receive a copy of our regular stakeholder updates by email, please email our Project Manager, Janet Digby at janet@levare.co.nz.