'Children need earlier eye screening'

Optometrists are encouraging parents to take their children for a special eye test as part of the "Bright Eyes for Back to School" campaign, which runs throughout this week.

The campaign, run by the Association of Optometrists Ireland (AOI), includes a special eye test its members are offering for young children to help detect any sight problems early, thereby enabling the best treatment options.

The AOI says proper levels of eye care can help prevent vision problems that can affect a child throughout their life.

It says Irish children are missing out on early visual assessments compared to their European counterparts, which is leading to many visual problems going undetected until it is too late to reverse them.

The AOI says ideally, all children should have their vision assessed by the age of three and then again at five, but many children in Ireland are not being seen until much later, if at all, through the national school screening system.

It says it has devised a simple screening that can be done at any local optician practice. It is more detailed and thorough than the screening on offer through schools, the AOI claims.

The screening service being offered by the optician's association, however, is not covered by the HSE and patients must pay private fees for it.

The AOI says this needs to be changed, so that all schoolgoing children are entitled to free eye examination through an optometrist, as recommended by the Competition Authority report on optometry in Ireland in 2006.

It says, however, that it is encouraging its members to offer the screening to children for as nominal a price as possible.

Parents can contact their local optometrist for further details.

[Posted: Mon 14/09/2009]