The Health Promotion Board (HPB) has developed the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) on Falls Prevention among Older Adults Living in the Community to provide health professionals in Singapore with recommendations for evidence-based assessments and interventions for falls prevention. This article reproduces the introduction and executive summary of the key recommendations from the HPB-MOH CPG on Falls Prevention among Older Adults Living in the Community for the information of SMJ readers. The chapters and page numbers mentioned in the reproduced extract refer to the full text of the guidelines, which are available from the Health Promotion Board website: http://www.hpb.gov. sg/cpg-falls-prevention. The recommendations should be used with reference to the full text of the guidelines. Following this article are multiple choice questions based on the full text of the guidelines.

Introduction: This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an occupational therapy (OT) low vision rehabilitation program established in a large hospital in Singapore in 2013. Methods: A logic model was used to develop a blueprint to guide program development and evaluation of the program. The targeted short-term outcomes for the first 2 years are to demonstrate program growth through an increase in referrals and meeting of clients’ needs through expressed client satisfaction and improvement in performance of daily activities. The long-term outcomes are to expand the program’s referral base and contribute to education and research in low vision rehabilitation. The steps of the logic model are described along with program evaluation results from the first 2 years of implementation. Results: The short-term outcome for program growth was met with the increase of referrals in the first 2 years. Program evaluation, however, revealed that there was limited support from some referral sources and underutilization of OT services, which need to be addressed to ensure sustainability of the program. It was difficult to establish whether the short-term outcomes for meeting clients’ needs were met due to limited outcome measures completed. Discussion: The logic model guided the steps of developing and evaluating an outpatient low vision rehabilitation program in a hospital in Singapore to determine whether the targeted outcomes were met for the first 2 years of the program. Use of this process enabled the program providers to identify weaknesses in the program and institute steps to move the program toward achievement of its long-term goals. Implications for practitioners: This blueprint can be used to guide occupational therapists developing medically based low vision rehabilitation programs for older adults.

Objective: Visual impairment restricts performance in activities of daily living. The aim of this study was to classify types of visual loss associated with function in older adults based on clinical data and World Health Organization (WHO) acuity and visual field criteria. Methods: Seven hundred retrospective medical records of older adults seen at the outpatient ophthalmology clinics of a Singapore hospital were reviewed. Extracted data was mapped to the WHO low vision criteria. A flow chart was developed to classify the main types of visual loss aligned with function. Results: The flow chart developed describes four major types of visual loss: (1) full visual field with decreased visual acuity, (2) any visual field loss with greater than ten degrees of available field, (3) peripheral field loss with less than 10° of available field, and (4) any visual field loss due to a cortical event. Within each major type, sub-categories were identified reflecting the complexity of the visual impact of the eye conditions. Conclusion: The flow chart can be applied to outpatient records to identify older adults with different types of visual loss to inform targeted rehabilitation linked with function.

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