Lighthouse Guild
 | |
| Formation | 1905/1914 |
|---|---|
| Legal status | Nonprofit |
| Purpose | Low-vision services |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, USA |
Region served | United States |
President & CEO | Alan R. Morse |
Main organ | Board of Directors |
| Website | LighthouseGuild.org |
Lighthouse Guild is an American charitable organization based in New York City, devoted to vision rehabilitation and health care services that address the needs of people who are blind or visually impaired, including those with multiple disabilities or chronic conditions.
Lighthouse Guild was formed by a merger in 2013 between Jewish Guild Healthcare and Lighthouse International.
Lighthouse Guild was officially formed in December 2013, when Jewish Guild Healthcare and Lighthouse International merged, drawing on more than 200 years of combined service, with histories dating back to 1914 and 1905, respectively.
History
In 1905, sisters Winifred and Edith Holt, inspired by witnessing a service in Florence, Italy, that provided free concert tickets to blind schoolchildren, founded The Lighthouse, which quickly became a pioneer in the field of vision rehabilitation. It was incorporated in 1906 as The New York Association for the Blind, Inc., and began to provide counseling and instruction for people with vision impairment. The Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School opened its doors in 1913. Today, it is the only community music school in the United States dedicated solely to serving students of all ages with vision loss. In 1998, The Lighthouse was named Lighthouse International to recognize its outreach on behalf of people worldwide who are visually impaired.
In 1914, the first formal meeting of the New York Guild for the Jewish Blind was held. The organization began by providing care, support and education for blind children, opening a home in Yonkers in 1919, with separate annexes for blind women and men. By the mid-1930s The Guild’s Library, containing books in Braille in nine languages, was lending books to readers in all 50 states and 14 foreign countries. Its greatest undertaking was the transcription of school books for students from the grammar school level through post-graduate studies.
The 1950s
In 1952, The Lighthouse commissioned the Ophthalmological Foundation to undertake medical research related to vision impairment and in 1953, it pioneered services for people with partial – rather than total – vision loss by establishing a low vision clinic.
The 1960s and 1970s
By the early 1960s, The New York Guild for the Jewish Blind had been renamed The Jewish Guild for the Blind to reflect its non-sectarian status and, in 1961, it opened the psychiatric clinic. The clinic was the first, and remains the only, such clinic in the country to offer treatment and management of behavioral disorders to people who are blind or visually impaired, with programs specifically designed and adapted for people with depression, anxiety and fear associated with sensory and functional loss.
In 1967, The Lighthouse opened its child development center, which operates today as The Ethel and Samuel J. LeFrak School. The school is an integrated pre-K program which educates children with visual impairment alongside their sighted peers. And in 1975, The Lighthouse established the first professional training program in low vision care, the only program accredited by the American Medical Association at that time.
Awards and Vision Research
Throughout their histories, The Lighthouse and The Guild have developed awards that recognize excellence in vision research or rehabilitation. The Pisart Award in Vision Science was inaugurated in 1981 by The Lighthouse, to recognize an early-career clinician or scientist, while The Guild established the Bressler Prize in Vision Science in 2003. This latter award recognizes an established mid-career clinician or scientist.
In 1995, The Lighthouse created The Arlene R. Gordon Research Institute, while in 2011, The Guild created the Oberdorfer Award in Low Vision in 2011, in collaboration with the ARVO Foundation for Eye Research. The former conducts studies designed to translate scientific findings and technological advances into useful solutions for people living with vision loss, and the latter award recognizes an individual’s role in furthering low vision research and rehabilitation.
Healthcare and Training
The 1980s and 1990s saw the opening by The Guild of a number of medically related services for people who have vision loss, such as the Adult Day Health Care program, which opened in 1984; the Developmental Disabilities Day Treatment Program in 1990; the Diagnostic and Treatment Center in 1994, offering low vision services along with primary care and selected specialty medical services; and GuildNet, established in 1997, one of the first Managed Long Term Care plans in New York State. The Guild also began to focus on educating the caregivers of persons who are blind or visually impaired, when it created its SightCare training program in 2000.
Supporting Parents and Students Nationwide
In 2004, The Guild began its national scholarship program, now amalgamated with The Lighthouse program, awarding substantial scholarships to help legally blind young adults successfully transition to college, to support their post-graduate education and to facilitate career development.
Recognizing the need for the support of parents whose children have vision loss, The Guild launched its National Tele-Support Network for Parents of Children with Visual Impairment in 2006. The program connects parents whose children have the same impairment, through weekly meetings facilitated by a psychologist or social worker. Parents phone in from around the country and abroad to discuss their children’s eye conditions.
In 2013, Jewish Guild Healthcare and Lighthouse International announced that they planned to merge, and in 2014, Lighthouse Guild was officially launched. This merger brought under one roof a full spectrum of integrated vision + healthcare services, helping people who are blind or visually impaired, including those with multiple disabilities or chronic medical conditions, lead productive, dignified and fulfilling lives.
Programs and services
VISION REHABILITATION
Our services help people regain function and maximize usable vision to remain safe, independent and active.
- Academic skills
- Adaptive computer technology
- Career services
- Independent living skills
- Low vision rehabilitation
- Orientation and mobility
Our store offers products that make day-to-day life easier for people with vision loss.
MEDICAL SERVICES
- We offer person-centered healthcare services, including:
- Cardiology
- Diabetes care and endocrinology
- Nephrology
- Neurology
- Occupational therapy
- Optometry
- Physiatry
- Physical therapy
- Podiatry
- Primary care
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
Our multi-disciplinary psychiatric clinic remains the only one of its kind in the country. Services include:
- Crisis intervention
- Individual therapy
- Psychotherapy
- Psychopharmacology
- Social services
- Therapy group
HEALTH PLANS
We offer three health plans that enable us to manage your medical and healthcare needs, especially if you are visually impaired.
GuildNet Managed Long Term Care (MLTC) helps people who are 18 or older and eligible for Medicaid and who have long term healthcare needs. A care management team works with you and your doctor to develop a care plan that helps you remain safely at home.
GuildNet Gold (HMO SNP) helps people 18 or older, who have both Medicare and Medicaid and have long term healthcare needs. GuildNet Gold helps people live in their own community for as long as their health permits.
GuildNet Gold Plus FIDA Plan (MMP) is a managed long term care plan for people 21 or over that combines all of the benefits of Medicare and Medicaid. With this plan, your medical and home care services revolve around you and your needs, helping you live safely and comfortably in your home.
ADULT DAY PROGRAMS
We help individuals maintain their health and independence.
- Adult Day Health Care services provide healthcare and recreation, and include two meals and transportation for people with vision loss as well as chronic medical conditions. Available in Albany, Buffalo, Manhattan, Niagara Falls and Yonkers.
- Developmental Disabilities Day Treatment provides individuals who reside in the community with functional life skills, psychological services and other activities that help maximize independence.
- Mental Health Day Treatment helps individuals with psychiatric diagnoses remain in the community and prevents psychiatric hospitalization.
TRAINING
We provide training to promote improved care and well being for people who are blind or visually impaired as well as those at risk.
- Healthcare Professional Training offers online continuing education, customized workshops, observerships, and clinical training to nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, case managers, medical students, optometrists and ophthalmology residents.
- Caregiver Information helps caregivers, including those who work in hospitals, outpatient clinics, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes, to provide effective care to people with vision loss.
- Diabetes Prevention promotes healthy living and provides healthcare services to mitigate the associated risks of vision impairment and blindness.
EDUCATION
We improve lives by expanding access to the most effective services through highly specialized schools, educational services, resources and support.
- The Ethel and Samuel J. LeFrak School enables preschool children ages three to five who are blind or visually impaired to learn alongside sighted peers.
- The Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn School provides students ages five to 21, who are blind, visually impaired, deaf/blind, and have additional disabilities, with education and therapeutic services.
- The Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School is the only community music school for people with vision loss in the US, offering accessible instruction and a music technology center.
- Youth and Teen Programs provide rehabilitation, education and recreation classes and activities to individuals ages six to 21 to enhance their traditional education.
- Support for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments helps find information, locates resources and offers tele-support groups for parents.
- Scholarships help legally blind young adults make a successful transition to college, support their post-graduate education, and facilitate career development.
RESEARCH AWARDS
- Bressler Prize in Vision Science recognizes an established mid-career vision clinician or scientist whose leadership, research and service have led to important advancements in the understanding of vision loss, treatment of eye disease or the rehabilitation of people with vision loss.
- Pisart Award in Vision Science recognizes an early-career vision clinician or scientist whose noteworthy, innovative and scholarly contributions have the potential for substantial influence in the understanding of vision loss, treatment of eye disease or the rehabilitation of people with vision loss.
- Oberdorfer Award in Low Vision created in collaboration with the ARVO Foundation for Eye Research, recognizes an individual for his/her role in furthering low vision research and rehabilitation.
RESEARCH
Our Arlene R. Gordon Research Institute conducts studies designed to translate scientific findings and technological advances into useful solutions for people living with vision loss.
ADVOCACY
We engage local, state and federal policy makers to raise awareness of the need for access to vision rehabilitation services, and advocate for appropriate legislative responses to issues affecting people with vision loss.
Headquarters
The Lighthouse Guild building is the handicapped-accessible Sol and Lillian Goldman Building at 15 West 65th Street in New York City.
References
External links
- Lighthouse Guild (official site)
- Archive of former Lighthouse International official site