Eye care Access to eye care services in the Covid world From 17th June 2020, normal eye care resumed in opticians after the Covid lockdown eased. Most opticians will want to talk with you on the phone before making an appointment to decide if you should come in for a full eye examination. If you have any worries about your eyes, changes to how you see or problems with your glasses, you should not wait. Please phone your normal optician or optometrist for their advice NOW. You should call your optician or optometrist if you have: changes to your vision a painful or red eye broken or lost glasses where you need a replacement pair to be able to see a problem with contact lenses If you are told to go to the opticians and you think you have any coronavirus symptoms, tell your practice, but do not visit them. More information on eye care during the coronavirus crisis More information on using NHS services during the lockdown Take a look at our easy reads on looking after your eyes For more information on the lockdown, what you can do to keep well and stay connected, visit our Covid support hub. Watch TV Presenter and SeeAbility patron Helen Fospero chat to SeeAbility Eye Care Champion Joanne Kennedy about her role at SeeAbility and how people with learning disabilities can take care of their eyes in the Covid world. . Our Eye Care Champions give out their top tips for looking after your eyes for people with learning disabilities during all the changes we have seen with the Covid pandemic. Advice for people supporting someone with a learning disability or autism We know how important it is for everyone with learning disabilities and autism to have regular sight tests, because they are 10 times more likely to have eye problems and because they may struggle to communicate changes or issues. We all have a responsibility to look for signs and symptoms of eyesight changes in people we support, so that we can take action and prevent them from unnecessarily losing their sight during this time. Our free resources can help. Our easy-to-use Functional Vision Assessment (FVA) tool helps to simplify this process A Functional Vision Assessment gives an indication of how well someone uses their sight in everyday life. It's designed to be filled in by someone who knows the person well, like a carer, supporter or learning disability professional. As we're all likely to be staying around the same few people at the moment and spending more time together, there will be more opportunities to make observations about how people are using their vision. Using our free FVA tool, you can get an indication of what a person might see or have difficulty seeing. An FVA can be very useful before someone attends a sight test or eye clinic appointment to identify potential problems. The observations made from using the FVA tool should be shared at someone’s next eye appointment to help them get the best support. If the assessment suggests there may be a new problem with their eyes or vision call your optician/optometrist. View the FVA tool and simple guides on how to use it. Please consider supporting our life-changing work by donating below By supporting us you'll be helping people with learning disabilities get the good quality eye care they need and support them to have an equal right to sight. Please select a donation amount (required) £50 [single] could provide specialist training to eye care professionals, so more people with learning disabilities are able to get the vital eye tests and glasses they need £25 [single] could fund specialist eye care equipment to help promote awareness of sight loss from our team of Eye Care Champions in the community £10 [single] could help us to lobby for more accessible eye tests for people with learning disabilities and autism, to reduce their risk of sight loss and isolation £20 [dd] a month could pay to run a digital training workshop to eye care professionals to prevent more people with learning disabilities and autism from losing their sight £10 [dd] a month could provide a support worker with vital training and information in recognising the signs of sight problems for someone with a learning disability £5 [dd] a month could help create accessible information for people with learning disabilities to learn how to look after their eyes and vision Other Set up a regular payment Donate .