Eye Examinations in Your Own Home

Eye care is a vital part of our overall healthcare and we should all be having regular eye examinations, however for some, getting out to a local optician is impossible. Optomise is a local service providing eye care throughout Northern Ireland for anyone who finds it difficult to attend a High Street practice. Using the latest portable equipment, we can bring a modern consulting room to your home so that we can tailor the examination to your individual needs.

Sometimes following an eye examination, new glasses are needed. We can offer a wide range of frames and lenses to suit all styles and budgets. All spectacles are personally delivered, fitted and checked to ensure vision and comfort. We can also call back at anytime for repairs or adjustments.

For those entitled to an NHS home visit, your eye examination is completely free of charge and you may get help with the cost of your spectacles. If you are unsure about your eligibility give us a call for advice.

Often spectacles on their own are not the answer and we have to look at other factors such as making the best use of the light available or perhaps the use of magnification. Sometimes making small changes can make a world of difference.

Optomise was set up over 10 years ago by William Stockdale and Len Telford to provide a friendly, caring, professional service for people all across Northern Ireland. Today our team is still passionate about the work and service we provide. If you need an eye examination at home call us on 0800 5878 248 or click here.

Nursing and Residential Care Homes

Optomise have been providing eyecare to care home residents all over Northern Ireland for over 10 years and we work in over 200 homes. We understand the needs of your residents and treat everyone with dignity and respect. The eye examination is tailored to each individual patient and we use specialised equipment and techniques which we have developed over the years so that we can get the best possible results.

Often performing an eye examination and providing spectacles is not enough. Individual, detailed information and advice is provided for the resident, their carers and their families to help with every day living. Training is available, free of charge, which lets care staff see how vision can affect behaviours, mobility, nutrition, communication and the link between poor sight and Dementia.

For the vast majority of residents their eye examinations are completely free of charge and most qualify for free spectacles under the NHS. Glasses do sometimes get lost, broken or may just need repaired or adjusted. Optomise offer a prompt and full aftercare service wherever you are in Northern Ireland.

Patient safety is a priority for us. Our team are hand-picked, many with a care sector background and all of our staff have enhanced disclosure Access NI certificates.

Whether you need one resident seen or a group give us a call on 0800 5878 248 or click here.

Sheltered Accommodation

Throughout life, taking care of your eyesight by having regular eye examinations is extremely important, and as we grow older it becomes even more important.

If you are out and about, and not had a recent eye examination then organise one today. It doesn’t take long and it is easy to do.

If however, you find it difficult to go out to an optician by yourself then we can come to you and provide a full eye examination in the comfort and privacy of your own home. We bring all the latest testing equipment and if you are over 60 the visit and eye examination is completely free of charge.

If you need new spectacles we have a large selection of frames to suit all tastes and budgets. All spectacles are personally delivered, fitted and checked to ensure vision and comfort and we can also call back anytime for adjustments or repairs.

Optomise specialise in providing eye care for people in their own homes throughout Northern Ireland. We have been providing this service for over 10 years and are the provinces largest supplier of domiciliary eye care. We are a local company but have won several national awards for our work.

If you have not had your eyes tested recently and find it difficult to get out to an optician by yourself then you can call us on 0800 5878 248 or click here to arrange your free eye examination at home.

People Living with Dementia

What’s the point? She’s confused. Don’t bother giving her glasses. She doesn’t watch TV and she doesn’t read. We hear this all the time when we are examining people with dementia. We could spend all day long telling you what the point is and we could spend all week telling you why we bother.

Dementia, sight, nutrition, stimulation, vulnerability, etc. are not factors which live in isolation but rather all mix together to create the person we care for. It can be so easy to label someone with their headline condition and in doing so miss out on opportunities to improve quality of life.

As opticians, we would like to suggest ways in which sight and visual health fits into the day-to-day life of someone living with dementia. Whilst, through nerve damage, dementia can affect sight, we would stress the positive effect good sight can have on dementia.

Over the past 10 years, optomise have carried out over 50 000 eye examinations on people with some form of dementia. We have provided these examinations in people’s own homes, care homes, sheltered accommodations and in hospitals. We tailor our examination to each individual’s needs and have specialised equipment which we use to assess vision where communication is difficult. Over those 10 years we have seen behaviours, which were being induced by sight problems, being solely and wrongly put down to dementia. If we fail to address the sight problem we will lose the opportunity to improve quality of life, independence, mobility and safety. 

In the care home setting, where spectacles are needed, we discretely engrave both the patient’s name and what the glasses are to be used for onto the frame.

To arrange an eye examination at home give us a call on 0800 5878 248 or click here.

People with a Learning Disability

It is currently estimated that 1 in 3 people with special needs have a vision problem but unfortunately most have never had an eye examination. Poor vision can have a detrimental affect on quality of life, independence, education and development but it has been shown that optimising vision can have a positive affect on all of these areas.

There are many reasons why people with learning disability have never had an eye examination. It can be difficult to get to and access a high street practice; the appointment time may be too short; the standard eye examination may not be suitable or perhaps you are afraid that cooperation will be poor.

Optomise have been examining people with learning disability for the last 10 years throughout Northern Ireland. Our home visiting service allows us to test peoples’ eyes in surroundings where they are comfortable and not intimidated by a clinical consulting room. We bring all the latest mobile testing equipment including specialised vision assessment tools to use when communication is difficult. We are not constrained by short appointment times, which allow us to examine our patients in a relaxed manner to get the best possible results.

Where spectacles are needed we have a large range of frames to suit all styles and budgets, including frames made with flexible materials for extra durability.

To arrange for a home eye examination call us on 0800 5878 248 or click here.

Training

Imagine how life would be if you could only see half of the world. Hearing voices coming out of the darkness to one side of you. Bumping into things that you didn’t know were there. Not knowing that there was still food left on one side of your dinner plate. Actually it’s hard to imagine it. Closing one eye will not show what its like, you will still see both sides of your world. At one of our interactive training sessions we don’t tell you what it’s like, we show you what it’s like.  

For the last ten years optomise have been providing person-centred eye care training throughout Northern Ireland. We have provided this training for over 7000 people including nurses, home managers, care assistants, social workers, occupational therapists, social workers and care home inspectors. The sessions are very hands-on and you get to see how poor sight can influence behaviours, trying on special simulation spectacles which allow you to see the world through the patient’s eyes.

Over the years we have seen so many people come to our training thinking that they were going to have to sit for an hour or so, listening to some guy go on about eyes, they nearly always leave buzzing, enthused and surprised by what they have seen and learned. The sessions are kept light and there is a fair amount of fun. All of our training is carried out by qualified opticians.

So what does it cost? Actually we provide all of our training free of charge. We believe that, especially in care homes, doing an eye test and giving someone glasses is not enough. Care staff need to have the knowledge of how poor vision can affect behaviours and how optimising vision can improve quality of life. We believe our training provides this.

To arrange a Free Optomise Training Session call us on 0800 5878 248 or click here.