Dr. Sarah Lunsford has wanted to be an optometrist since she was 13 years old. After all, the profession runs in the family.
“I am a fourth-generation optometrist,” Lunsford said. “I like the one-on-one time I get to spend with my patients.”
Lunsford, who works for the EyeCare Center of Saline County in Bryant, recently partnered with the Bryant Hornet Health Clinic to provide eye care on the campus of Bryant Elementary School. She and her staff have been there for more than four weeks now.
“It is really important to us because 80 percent of learning is visual learning,” Lunsford said. “We want to help the children in Bryant and Saline County to see their best and excel in school.”
Lunsford has been with the EyeCare Center of Saline County, which is owned by Dr. Justin Franks, for a little over two years. She is originally from DeWitt, having graduated from DeWitt High School in 2000. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 2004 and graduated from the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2008.
“I’ve always been good with kids, and I enjoy working with them,” Lunsford said. “When I was in optometry school, my classmates would come and get me if they were having trouble with a kid because they knew I could usually get what needed to be done accomplished.
“Both [adults and children] can have their challenges, but children are fun to work with.”
The Hornet Health Center, a school-based health center, is in its fourth year of a five-year grant. The center offers pediatric care, dental services and now vision care, which is available from Lunsford every Wednesday morning. For more information, call (501) 653-5040.
“We have several students who need medical care outside of what our school nurses can provide,” said Renee Curtis, Bryant School District director of student services. “It saves parents from having to miss work and saves students classroom time because they can go there [to the center] on campus, then return right back to class.
“They are allowed access to medical attention because it is hard for families to take off and take them to a doctor.”
Curtis said the school hosts annual hearing and vision tests, so any students who fail a vision test are referred to the eye clinic and get checked out for glasses.
“For anybody who wears glasses, you probably remember when you got your first pair and how a lot of times, the world opens up, and you can see the leaves on the trees,” Lunsford said. “It makes such a big difference in the rest of their life.
“Kids aren’t always able to tell you that their vision is blurry or they aren’t seeing normally because they don’t know what normal is. They don’t have anything to compare it to like an adult would.”
The grant is funded through the Arkansas Department of Education, and the school pays for all of the equipment and setup, while the doctors provide the staff and service.
“Once you complete the five-year cycle, then you will have the option, depending on how things go, to possibly request and write another grant to get another school-based health center,” Curtis said.
She said the best part about having a student health center is that it allows students to be seen and taken care of, then return to class. If they go to a different school in the district, the health center buses the kids to and from the health center.
“Most of the time, kids are excited to get glasses,” Lunsford said. “The younger they are, the more excited they are to get a pair.
“Sometimes the older ones, they do have the stigma where they don’t think it’s as cool to wear glasses, but a lot of times, once we talk about why they need them — because they are having trouble seeing or they are getting headaches after reading — and they understand the purpose behind them, they are usually more open to it,” Lunsford said. “Plus, glasses have been in style the past few years. Kids wear glasses without lenses for the look, so it has been much easier to transition kids into glasses than it used to be.”
Lunsford said the clinic has all the standard equipment to do a complete eye exam, and if a child has ARKids or Medicaid, the clinic has glasses for them to pick out and order.
She said the clinic also treats eye problems such as infections or injuries and has had some patients with allergies. She even said she had a few teenagers in the clinic.
“Girls’ eyes don’t stabilize until their early 20s, and guys stabilize around 18, so through high school, they can still be changing quite a bit. Some of the ones we saw had glasses before, but it had been a long time since they wore any, or they recently had trouble seeing the board,” she said.
“I enjoy seeing the pediatric population, and they are my favorite patients to see,” Sarah Lunsford said. “I like seeing a lot of kids and providing them with better access to eye care.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.