Season 3 episode 5: Providing support and community with sight loss: Dr. Laura Peters

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Vets First Podcast

Department of Veterans Affairs

33 episodes

4 months ago

The Vets First podcast is a research-based podcast that focuses on the VA healthcare system and its patients. Instead of being just another research podcast, the Vets First podcast was created with a primary focus on the Veterans and their stories. The hosts, Levi Sowers PhD, and Brandon Rea work to bridge the gap between the state-of-the-art research being performed at Veterans Affairs and the Veterans themselves in an easy-to-understand manner. Importantly, Levi and Brandon want to assist researchers around the country to better understand the needs of Veterans. In this podcast you will hear interviews from Veterans with specific conditions and then hear from VA funded researchers who are studying those very topics as well as other highlighted services the VA provides. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not endorse or officially sanction any entities that may be discussed in this podcast, nor any media, products or services they may provide.

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All content for Vets First Podcast is the property of Department of Veterans Affairs and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

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Season 3 episode 5: Providing support and community with sight loss: Dr. Laura Peters

Vets First Podcast

35 minutes

2 years ago

Season 3 episode 5: Providing support and community with sight loss: Dr. Laura Peters

In this episode of the Vets First Podcast, hosts Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea interview Dr. Laura Peters. Dr. Peters currently works as a licensed counselling psychologist at the VA Blind Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto, California. Originally from California, Dr. Peters completed her graduate degree in counseling psychology at University of Utah. She began working with the VA during a practicum in which she focused on geriatric psychology, the psychology of aging, and worked at an outpatient mental health program in Salt Lake City, Utah. Eventually, she found her way to Palo Alto, California where she currently lives.

Dr. Peters goes on to discuss her path to her current career at the Blind Rehabilitation Center and her role in helping visually impaired Veterans as a licensed counselling psychologist. She further discusses the diverse causes and symptoms of vision loss that impact Veterans, and the general population. Dr. Peters talks more in-depth on the prevalence of age-related vision loss and how Veterans learn to adapt with sudden or progressive blindness. Levi, Brandon, and Dr. Peters examine the impact of both physical and mental aspects of vision loss on Veterans’ daily activities, and several tools that assist individuals with varied spectrums of visual impairment.

Dr. Peters discusses the benefits of using a whole-person approach in treatment of vision impaired Veterans. She further highlights the inter-professional collaboration between counsellors, social workers, physicians, and other healthcare professionals when a Veteran seeks care within the Blind Rehabilitation Center. Lastly, Brandon, Levi, and Dr. Peters briefly discuss recent research around visual loss and Veterans, as well as Veteran testimonials regarding Blind Rehabilitation Centers. As Dr. Peters mentions in this episode, there are a total of thirteen VA Blind Rehabilitation Centers as well as several non-VA facilities throughout the United States that a Veteran can access if experiencing vision loss.

If you are a Veteran or you know a Veteran needing help with visual loss, contact the Visual Impairment Services Team coordinator at your nearest VA medical center or contact the Blind Rehabilitation Service Program by phone which can be found here.