Optomise has been providing domiciliary eye care services across Northern Ireland for 25 years and in December, the independent became the inaugural winner of the domiciliary category at the Optician Awards. Peter Shields, group manager at Optomise, tells Optician that the team were shocked but delighted to hear their name called out as the winners.
‘It was an absolute honour for us to win. Our first thought was to share the good news with our wonderful team via WhatsApp and spent the next hour or so reading and replying to all of the responses. The trophy now has pride of place in our Newtownards office,’ he says.
The three members of the team that attended the ceremony and gala dinner at London Hilton on Park Lane celebrated with friends and colleagues on the night, and the rest of the team will enjoy a hospitality box at Belfast’s SSE Arena to watch the Belfast Giants ice hockey team.
Celebrating excellence
Shields says domiciliary is an unbelievably rewarding and incredibly challenging side of the profession and one that is often misunderstood.
‘I worked in high street practice for 15 years and loved it. I got to meet and chat to some lovely people and, at the same time, allow them to see that little bit better. In domiciliary, I also get to meet some incredibly interesting people who have led amazing lives and, sometimes, by giving them a new pair of spectacles or by giving some simple advice, we can make massive differences to their quality of life,’ he says.
The importance of eye health and domiciliary visits is obvious, he says, but the holistic benefits to patients are huge. ‘It’s so easy to forget how important good sight is for everyday things like safe mobility, communication, hydration, nutrition and engagement with everything around us. It’s even more important for the patients we see who are living with dementia. The world can be an even more confusing and frightening place when we see it through blurred eyes,’ Shields notes.
Optician Awards celebrate excellence and Optomise achieves this through its team who are committed to providing high standards of care, which he says can be a challenge when recruiting. ‘Our entire team are employed by us. We regularly conduct reviews by speaking to our team, to our patients and to their carers where appropriate to find ways to refine and improve our service.
‘We invest time in providing training for carers so that they can better understand the visual needs of the people that they care for. We provide training for our guys, not only on optometry but on subjects such as dementia and communication,’ Shields adds.
Anniversary ambitions
Additional training with the Alzheimer’s Society has made a massive difference to patient communication at Optomise and the entire team have become Dementia Friends.
‘It reminds us that when we are communicating with someone who is living with dementia that we are talking with someone who has led a full life and who may well have done bigger and better things than perhaps we may ever do. It has certainly taught us how to communicate effectively but more importantly to seek out the things that the person can do rather than dwell on what they can’t,’ he says.
Shields says that only in the past year has Optomise seen normality return after the pandemic following a spike in the amount of pathology seen in the wake of lockdowns and restricted services.
‘The fallout from the pandemic had a massive effect on our domiciliary patients. In Northern Ireland, we could not cross the threshold of anyone’s home even in the event of an emergency. We continued to provide a virtual triage service, but this was incredibly frustrating because often no follow up treatment was possible.’
Shields adds that it was a challenging time professionally and for the business but Optomise is looking forward while celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024.
‘We’ve come a long way in that time, from two local opticians seeing people in our own town to a team of 25, providing eye care in every corner of Northern Ireland,’ he says.
Shields says Optomise aims to continue growing and investing in its team and is always looking at ways to improve and refine services. ‘Constantly seeking out new frame styles for our patients and looking for the latest in mobile eye testing equipment, we are looking forward to the next 25 years with great excitement,’ Shields adds.