Bringing better eyesight, hearing and smiles
KUCHING: Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Programme (SOHAP) is a programme designed to help the Special Olympic athletes improve their health and fitness leading to enhanced well-being, quality of life and performance in sports.
Opening Eyes, Healthy Hearing, Special Smiles are three of the seven components of the 5th SOHAP conducted this year at the Special Olympic State Games held at University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Stadium from Aug 17 to 19.
The other four are MedFest, FUNfitness, Healthy Promotion and Fit Feet.
We can help them to see better and compete better and live a more meaningful and colourful life too. Dr Chieng Lee Ling, Opening Eyes Clinical Director
Opening Eyes Athletes with intellectual disabilities need to be screened regularly to check the deterioration of their eyesight.
To Opening Eyes Clinical Director Dr Chieng Lee Ling, the screenings are necessary because their degrees might increase and their glasses need to be changed every year as the athletes especially the young ones grow up or due to wear and tear.
“Generally their eyesight is quite good because some of them have been screened before and every two years we come in to screen them during the Special Olympic State Games,” said Dr Chieng who is also Special Olympics Malaysia Clinical Director.
“In between Special Olympics State Games, we also do hazard screening from time to time like what we did at the Sunf lower Centre in Miri last year together with Healthy Promotion and the HAP in Sibu,” said Dr Chieng.
This year, Dr Chieng and his Opening Eyes team comprising three doctors from the Sarawak General Hospital, three optometrists, two nurses, one eye specialist, six Leo Lions and eight medical students from SEGI University Sibu Campus, conducted the screening for 162 athletes.
“From the total number of athletes screened, we found out that 23 needed glasses and we referred 15 cases for cataract operation to various hospitals in Sibu, Kuching and Miri.
“Eyesight is very important to the athletes because they need to see properly in whichever sport they are involved in. For example, if you race on the track, you need to run on the correct lane and not out of track.
“Or if they cannot see properly they tend to fall down and they can also swim in the wrong lane in the pool,” he added.
Through the screening, Dr Chieng said his team would be able to find out what are the athletes’ problems and make the referrals for them to seek necessary treatment.
“We can help them to see better and compete better and live a more meaningful and colourful life too,” said Dr Chieng who was involved in SOHAP in 2007 after he was trained as a clinical director in 2006.
According to him, a clinical director is a medical personnel who is specially trained to screen the athletes in a standardised way, collect and analyse the data so that he can write referral letters for the athletes. Healthy Hearing Dr Ong Cheng Ai, a Ear Nose Throat surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital , Kota Kinabalu, Sabah also f l ew into Kuching a t the invitation of Prof Dr Toh Teck Hock.
His team of 20 volunteers included Dr Lai Chun Weng, Dr Norhani Yasmin Abdul Rahman, Dr Lee Teng Hui and Dr Aspah Nazmi Mohammad Yusof, audiologists from Sarawak General Hospital Ungku Salmiah Ungku Ubaidillah, Yeo Pui Pui, Jenny Lau and Lizzy Chung as well as five medical students from SEGI University Sibu Campus and two paramedics from Unimas.
“We screened a total of 162 athletes over two days for their ear canal problem, ear drum problem or middle ear problem.
” Out of the total number screened, 56 have hearing problem and 18 with infected wax which is more than 40 per cent who need to be referred for medical attention,” he said. Special Smiles The oral health of athletes with intellectual disabilities is generally poorer than an average person.
This can be seen from the findings on the screening conducted by Special Smiles Clinical Director Dr Lorend Telajan Achol who is a pediatric dental surgeon at the Sarawak General Hospital.
“My team of nine volunteers screened 166 athletes over two days and we had 42 referrals, which is about 25 per cent of them who have dental caries (tooth decay) and gum disease due to poor oral hygiene.
“These problems are either due to a sugary diet or no brushing of teeth,” he noted.
The volunteers included dental officers Dr Munirah Abdul Talib, Dr Kelvin Liaw, De Wan Nor Aini Wan Nor Aziz and Dr Fatin Raihanah Norhalim, dental therapists Sylvia Christopher and Melisa Ho, dental surgery assistants Hasri Dawi and Hilmi Nawi, and driver Mahmud Jobli.
It was their first SOHAP and the team worked very hard and enjoyed the experience.
Dr Lorend said his team made screening on the athletes’ teeth, gum, tongue and mouth and educated them on correct brushing and flossing, the importance of diet to oral health and fabricated custom mouth-guards for contact sports.
“If the athletes’ teeth are well taken care of, I believe they will enjoy more doing sports,” said Dr Lorend who is the only pediatric dental specialist in Sarawak health service.
He also enjoyed working with the athletes with intellectual disabilities and in his work he has also dealt with children who are physically challenged, have Down Syndrome or cerebral palsy.
“I really enjoyed this volunteer work during SOHAP and how I wish it is done every year. It is really satisfying to be able to bring smiles to these athletes and help them,” said Dr Lorend who took the opportunity to thank Glaxo-Smith Kline for sponsoring free goodies in the form of a Sensodyne toothpaste to every athlete who attended Special Smiles screening.