SeeAbility has launched its Steps Count initiative for October and challenged members of the optical profession to commit to an amount of steps to fundraise for its work supporting people with learning disabilities and autism to access sight care.
The specialist optical charity, which won the Overall Award for Excellence at the Charity Awards 2021, has previously received recognition and praise from NHS England for providing eye care to children in special schools and has worked with the NHS to begin rolling out its model nationwide.
Its Steps Count initiative has built on the success of last year’s Step Up challenge with an inclusive focus, as SeeAbility public fundraising officer Sarah Namusobya explained: ‘This year we rebranded our challenge as Steps Count because we believe everyone can make a step towards inclusion by raising awareness, supporting the charity or doing anything else to make inclusion for people with learning disabilities or autism a reality.’
She added: ‘We thought about making it a 10,000 steps challenge, but we recognise that, for someone in a wheelchair, 10 steps a day would be just as big a challenge. Those in the optical profession too busy to get involved themselves could even consider donating a small amount to SeeAbility per frame dispense.’
Rhyme and reason
SeeAbility’s research has revealed many children with learning disabilities struggle to access eye care services and often have no history of attending a community optician. The charity has found that children with learning disabilities are 28 times more likely than average to have serious sight problems, and yet only one in 10 has visited a high street optician.
This is especially dangerous, explained SeeAbility’s strategic lead for eye care and vision Matt Broom, because those with learning disabilities are much more likely to require sight care. ‘The stats say that people with learning disabilities need eye care more than the general population. Six in 10 of the children we help require glasses. One of the things I say all the time is that anybody with a severe learning disability should be assumed to have sight loss unless found otherwise. It’s really that prevalent.’
SeeAbility told Optician that funds raised by the optical profession and other fundraisers would go directly towards supporting the charity as a whole, including the special schools programme, work supporting those with learning disabilities and autism to access employment and its Eye Care Champion programme.
Eye of the champion
Rebecca Lunness, one of SeeAbility’s Eye Care Champions, had pledged to complete laps of her local park in Nuttall throughout October to fundraise for the Steps Count initiative. As a champion for the charity, Lunness was employed to share her lived experience of learning disability and communicate with peers, learning disability professionals and the optical profession about the need for eye care.
Broom said the employment programme was valuable because it provided employment to people who often struggled to find jobs, but also because ‘the voice of the champions, with all of their experience, is so much more powerful than simple stats.’
Lunness, who began working as a champion in 2019, explained she was inspired to take part by Captain Tom Moore: ‘He inspired me and millions of other people. I was blown away.’
She explained that funds raised by the Steps Count initiative were vital in continuing to promote the value of eye care to especially vulnerable populations: ‘Without the strong Eye Care Champion team that I am part of, a lot of people would not be aware of the importance of eye care in the way they are now. We raise a huge amount of awareness.’