Eye care charity Vision Care for Homeless People (VCHP) has renewed its call for volunteer optometrists and dispensing opticians to assist with the provision of eye care to the UK's homeless population.
Optometrists currently assisting the charity with its work from London's Crisis Centre have found homeless people struggling with prescriptions of up to -16.00D. 'All of the volunteers who work with us come for a session just once a month and they find it tremendously rewarding. The service is greatly valued and it is a terrible shame when we are not able to open the practice because of a lack of volunteers,' said founder Harinder Paul.
Both optometrists and dispensing opticians are urgently required by the charity to work within its London and Birmingham centres. 'Some professionals are put off from volunteering because they don't know who they'll meet. In reality 98 per cent of those who come to us for help are not rough sleepers, but marginalised people who live in hostels and safe houses. They just do not feel comfortable going into high street opticians,' he added.