Case Study: Eye Care Services for People with Learning Disabilities
20 June 2022
To coincide with learning disability week LOCSU has published a case study which considers the benefits of widespread commissioning of the People with Learning Disabilities service. This follows the roll out of the service across the Northwest of England.
People with Learning Disabilities are statistically 10 times more likely to have serious sight problems but are less likely to have access to high quality eyecare.
Before the pandemic statistics showed that less than 50 per cent of adults with learning disabilities have had a sight test in the last two years, these figures are now likely to be even higher.
Often family members and carers will hesitate to attend an eye test fearing that the person with learning disabilities would fail to understand the standard test. LOCSU working alongside SeeAbility has updated this service to increase awareness so that no one is too disabled to have a sight test.
The Northwest is the first NHS region with full coverage in England.
The case study looks at how there are plans to relaunch the service across the region with CPD events planned. It also looks at how LOCSU, SeeAbility and WOPEC have updated the online learning module which needs to be completed if delivering this service.