Welcome to today s webinar

Transcription

1 Welcome to today s webinar Now that you have joined, you will notice that you are on mute. It will stay on this slide and you will not hear anything until approximately 2:05pm. If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please write them in the Private Chat section located in the below right panel. There will be an opportunity to have your questions answered at the end. This webinar will be put on the DAA website afterwards (with no audio). Make sure you have dialled and entered #

2 Sight loss and Dementia Matt Broom. CEO VISION 2020 UK June Neil Training and Development Manager (Older People Complex Needs) UK Adult Social Care Practice and Development Team, RNIB

3 Who are we? VISION 2020 is the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness (2002) VISION 2020 UK is the umbrella organisation which leads collaboration and co-operation between organisations with an interest in eye health and sight loss (2003) VISION 2020 UK will become Vision UK in October 2017 merging with the UK Vision Strategy team and the England Vision Strategy team

4 Our Mission To lead the collaboration of interested organisations in order to: Improve the eye health of the UK Prevent avoidable sight loss Ensure inclusion and participation of people who have impaired vision in society

5 VISION 2020 UK Dementia and Sight Loss Committee The Committee involves a collaboration of representatives from VISION 2020 UK Member organisations and experts from the Dementia and Sight loss world. The need to form a group about dementia and sight loss was triggered by the growing realisation that, although large numbers of people with dementia also have problems with vision and visual perception, awareness of the particular difficulties faced by those affected by both conditions is very low

6 VISION 2020 UK Dementia and Sight Loss Committee The recent provide study from the College of Optometrists showed that about 1/3 of the 850,000 patients with dementia in the UK have a Visual Impairment which means about 285,000 people have both conditions (and probably more as Dementia very rarely travels alone).(1) The Committee have produced various resources including leaflets on: Dementia and Low Vision, Wearing Spectacles and Dementia, Eye Examinations for people with Dementia and Cataracts and Dementia

7 Key Messages Sight loss is a significant issue in older people Sight loss is a significant issue in dementia Sight loss often goes unrecognised in older people and people living with dementia Sight loss can be identified and its impact reduced

8 Living with Sight loss and dementia Sight loss will affect people with dementia and may be caused by: Eye condition(s) Another health condition Normal ageing of the eye

9 5 leading causes of sight loss Refractive errors Macular degeneration Cataract

10 5 leading causes of sight loss Glaucoma Diabetic Retinopathy Other eye disease

11 Effects of dementia on vision Blurry vision even with spectacle correction Reduced colour contrast sensitivity Reduction in depth perception Peripheral changes (3) People with dementia can have sight loss caused by the brain but still have healthy eyes

12 Reasons for Hidden Sight Loss Diagnostic overshadowing Communication Barriers to accessing eye health services

13 Accessing eye care Eye examinations can be adapted for all Most people should have an eye examination every 2 years unless advised otherwise by an Optometrist Over 70 years of age should have an annual eye examination Domiciliary eye examination are available if required

14 Reducing impact of sight loss

15 Sight Loss and learning disabilities An estimated 96,500 adults with learning disabilities are sight impaired or severely sight impaired People with a learning disability are 10 times more likely to have serious sight problems than other people [1] 1 in 10 people aged 50 to 60 with a learning disability will develop dementia [2]

16 VISION 2020 UK Learning Disabilities and Sight Loss Committee The VISION 2020 UK Learning Disability Committee focuses on the specific needs of children and adults who have a learning disability and provides a unified approach to issues relating to vision and learning disability across the UK. The Committee lead on the LOCSU LD pathway (also the LOCSU Low Vision pathway), Meet quarterly, started in January 2010 been going 6 years now Have representation from SeeAbility, ABDO, BIOS, RNIB, RCOphth, GOC and CoO.

17 VISION 2020 UK Learning Disabilities and Sight Loss Committee The Committee: Have been working towards optom training and having LD in the curriculum/teaching of the optom schools. Getting the message out to parents, teachers, carers and others about the importance of eye health in kids (socks on specs on etc) Created information to encourage PwLD to wear their specs

18 VISION 2020 UK Learning Disabilities and Sight Loss Committee

19 VISION 2020 UK Dementia and Sight Loss Factsheets are available here: Learning Disabilities and Sight loss resources are available here: uk-learning-disability-committee-supporting-vision-inchildren-with-special-needs/

20 Thank You Matt Broom. CEO, VISION 2020 UK June Neil. Training and Development Manager (Older People Complex Needs) UK Adult Social Care Practice and Development Team, RNIB

21 Any Questions

22 References (1) Alzheimer's Society (2014) Dementia UK: Update. Alzheimer's Society. (2). Bowen M, Edgar D, Hancock B et al (2016) The Prevalence of Visual Impairment in People with Dementia: a cross sectional study of year old people with dementia and qualitative exploration of individual, carer and professional perspectives. National Institute for Health Research (3) (4) Emerson E and Robertson J (2011) Estimated prevalence of visual impairment among people with learning disabilities in the UK. RNIB and Seeability (5) Alzheimer's Society Statistics (accessed 21/07/17)

23 Thank you We hope you enjoyed today s webinar. These are open to everyone, so please forward on the details for future webinars. Questions, please dementiaactionalliance@alzheimers.org.uk Slides /past webinars visit ww.dementiaaction.org.uk/resources For further webinars please check