Charity calls for better services for minorities

There is clear evidence to suggest that people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities are least likely to receive appropriate access to vision services, despite being the most likely to suffer from vision loss, according to a new best practice guide.

Researchers of the guide, People from black and minority ethnic communities and vision services: A Good Practice Guide, published this week by sight loss charity the Thomas Pocklington Trust, examined existing evidence and interviewed vision services projects from around the country. It revealed that effective projects for BMEs are ‘few and far between’.

Findings suggest that BME communities are likely to experience more barriers to services and there is a need for more culturally sensitive ways of enabling people to access services required. The guide is calling on commissioners and service providers to, if necessary, adapt the way their services are provided to meet the needs of the particular communities. The authors pointed out that different communities are likely to require different approaches to meet the same needs.