Dealing with the emotional and practical impact of changes to your sight can be overwhelming. Eye clinic staff are often the first point of contact for people coping with sight loss and have an important role in providing practical information, emotional support and in signposting other services.
In this section we provide a range of useful information for eye health professionals (including ophthalmologists, ophthalmic nurses, and other eye clinic staff), to help you provide the best support to your service users.
From understanding the registration and certification process and the role of Eye Clinic Liaison Officers (ECLOs) to relevant conferences, networks and training courses, our resources are designed to support you. Our self assessment guide for low vision services can also help you evaluate your own service and identify areas for improvement.
News
Reducing the risk of falls
As we get older, physical changes and health conditions - and sometimes the medications used to treat those conditions - make falls more likely. Sight loss also increases the risk of falling.
RNIB to receive £240,000 to test electronic Certificates of Vision Impairment
Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has been awarded £240K for a three year project to test electronic Certificates of Vision Impairment (CVI). A CVI, signed by an ophthalmologist, acts as a formal trigger for registration with social services as a blind or partially sighted person and provides access to a care assessment for rehabilitation support.
The project will be run in partnership with the CVI Certifications Office based at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. It will pilot and evaluate an electronic CVI (eCVI) to simplify and speed up the certification process and enable blind and partially sighted people to access help and support more quickly and improve their quality of life. Find out more about this on our NB news pages.
New Sight loss data tool
RNIB have published a sight loss data tool which gives factual information about sight loss for each region and local authority in England. It supports work done by the UK Vision Strategy and RNIB. It is available for you to use free of charge.
Examples of information you can find by using the sight loss data tool include:
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estimated number of people living with sight loss in Barnsley in 2011 and how this will change by 2020
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number of eye clinics in Birmingham, and what proportion have some form of early reach support in place.
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estimated number of people living with age-related macular degeneration in the North West region
The first ever Public Health Indicator for preventable sight loss
The eye health sector has welcomed the announcement of details of how the first ever Public Health Indicator for preventable sight loss will be measured. From April 2013 this Indicator will be introduced as part of the Public Health Outcomes Framework in England and will monitor the major causes of preventable sight loss in adults.
Public Health England, the organisation responsible for this Framework, will assess how many people are certified as sight impaired (partially sighted) or severely sight impaired (blind) and have lost their sight from one of the three major causes of preventable sight loss: glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Read the full briefing on the UK Vision Strategy website.
Developing effective Public Health strategies
Governments across the UK are taking important steps to identify the need to improve eye health and build the prevention of avoidable sight loss into the development of effective public health strategies. You can read more about this on our Public Health Specialist pages.
Research and Policy
Are you looking for the latest facts, figures and thinking about sight loss and its impact on health services?
Visit our
Research and Policy in Health section where you can view the latest research documents and evidence in relation to prevention of sight loss and early reach.