I write in response to Chris Bennett’s editorial ‘Research is great but action is better’ which challenges the sector’s associations, organisations and bodies to do more to do more to raise awareness of the role of the optical profession in identifying and dealing with eye health problems.
In representing more than 14,000 members in every optometric work-setting, the College of Optometrists regularly commissions its own research into the levels of understanding of eye health and the role of optometrists, most recently in September 2014, which routinely finds the same thing – that people say they value their eye sight above every other sense but often ignore symptoms of deteriorating vision for sometimes years on end. The picture is complicated by the public’s lack of understanding of the role that the individual professionals perform.
For these reasons the College retains a communications agency and works with their health specialist team to promote awareness of both eye health and the role of optometrists, to the public and with allied health professionals.
Our work results in hundreds of newspaper and broadcast pieces every year, at both national and local levels. In addition, our dedicated campaigns have been aimed at raising awareness with specific communities, for example, targeting the Afro-Caribbean community for our glaucoma campaign and the elderly, their carers and related health workers with our falls work. And our ‘Look for the Letters’ campaign has done much to draw attention to the unique role of optometrists in maintaining both vision and health.
In addition, our growing range of patient information resources are also designed not just to explain certain conditions to the public, but for our members to be able to provide their own title and practice details to enable follow-up. In addition to the College website, we also host a consumer facing website, Lookafteryoureyes.com, which again exists to raise public awareness of eye health conditions and the role of optometrists.
We also work together with others in the sector to promote optometrists’ role, and work with stakeholders including patient representatives, through bodies such as the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning in England, and collaborations including National Eye Health Week and our Workforce Survey and the Optical Confederation’s Foresight project.
We do not underestimate the scale of the challenge; all professions operating in the sector are hindered by the common commercial designation of eye care professionals as ‘opticians’ and the millions of pounds of advertising coverage focused on the sale of spectacles which, as we all know, subsidise the real cost of the eye examination. However, it should be noted that in Scotland and Wales optometrists are beginning to be seen as the first port of call, supported by their national commissioning arrangements which allow repeat measures, follow-ups and the ability to manage minor eye conditions as part of the main contract. This needs to happen in the rest of the UK.
Bryony Pawinska, Chief Executive of the College of Optometrists
