From the front room: Dignity in home visits

Last week my scheduler and I saw an elderly lady who started crying after the eye test. Her one sentence, said through tears, stuck with me. She said, ‘Today you have given me my dignity back’. Hearing this made me feel so good.

The appointment was the one thing that she could do independently on her own. She did not have to ask her busy daughter to take her to the optician. She just picked up the leaflet posted through her door, made the appointment by phone, and did not have to rely on anyone else.

The entire journey was so easy for her, that she felt like she did it on her own, whereas every other thing that she tried to do had to be done by someone else; from cutting her toenails to sorting her hair out, to getting her shoes on.