Vision UK, the umbrella organisation which leads collaboration with partners across the eye health and sight loss sector recognised the ground-breaking work being done by the Seeing Beyond the Eyes team last night at their joint conference between the RSM GP with Primary Health Care Section, Vision UK and in association with the RSM Ophthalmology Section and Digital Health Section.
The team faced stiff competition from 5 other nominees in their category so were delighted when it was announced that they’d been awarded The Vision UK John Thompson Award for Excellence in Services, Support and Care 2019, one of the new thematic awards at this year’s event.
The team’s achievements in bringing the optical and sight loss support sectors together to benefit patients with visual impairments has been impressive since the project’s launch in May 2018. 60 interactive Continuing Education and Training (CET) workshops have been delivered throughout England and Scotland empowering over 4,500 optometrists and dispensing opticians to better support their patients living with sight loss and forge closer links with local and national support services. Feedback from delegates has been excellent and referrals are increasing.
Project lead and founder of Visualise Training and Consultancy Daniel Williams stated “We are delighted to win such a prestigious award but it is vital that we continue our education programme as there is still so much more to be done to ensure patients receive signposting and referrals for support as soon as they get a suspected and life-changing diagnosis.
It is estimated that over 50% of sight loss is preventable, but it is still increasing so engagement between the optical and sight loss support sectors is more important than ever to help minimise the financial and emotional impacts for patients. Therefore, we are determined to reach all 21,000 UK optical clinicians but need help from the optical and sight loss sectors in terms of funding, venues and resources to achieve this so please contact me if you can assist.”
To find out more about the Seeing Beyond the Eyes project and book your free workshop place, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/visualise-training-and- consultancy-17222888162 or email [email protected]