According to Public Relations and International Affairs, "Afrouz Safarifard", deputy for Disability Prevention of Addiction Prevention and Treatment Development Center of SWO, on the second day of commemorating the Welfare Week, stated that one of the missions of welfare is the prevention of disabilities and reiterated that: vision screening is one of the organization's 25-year successful programs which have been implemented in the country since 1998, and we were able to identify and treat many vision disorders that could lead to disability in time.
The deputy for disability prevention at the development center for addiction prevention and treatment of SWO continued: in amblyopia screening program, about 22,000 screeners, 800 optometrists and 180 ophthalmologists cooperate with us, and the cases that are identified with disorders are first referred to the optometrist and After that, they are referred to an ophthalmologist. This is despite the fact that since the beginning of this program, 50 million cases of screening have been done for children aged 3 to 6 years, and 370,000 amblyopia children were diagnosed, and visual disability was prevented with timely interventions. He pointed to the hearing screening of newborns and said: Currently, we have 630 hearing screening units in hospitals, maternity hospitals, welfare offices, and we screen babies at birth and at the end of one month, and we use medical and rehabilitation interventions.
Since 2004, 12 million infants have been hearing impaired in which which 32,000 infants had hearing impairments.
Referring to the activity of 253 genetic counseling centers in the country, Safarifard reminded at the end: these centers render services from before marriage to pregnancy in order to prevent the birth of disabled infants while increasing the healthy population of the society. Families who are covered by the organization are also offered free genetic tests if they wish; Also, due to the growth of the elderly population, the disability prevention program in aging for pre-elderly and elderly people is being pursued so that we can also prevent the disability in aging.