Glaucoma UK launches eye drop guide

Guide contains helpful advice and diagrams (photo credit: Glaucoma UK)

Ahead of World Glaucoma Week 2022 (6-12 March), Glaucoma UK has launched a new easy-read guide to help patients self-administer their eye drops.

There are an estimated 700,000 people in the UK living with glaucoma, and half don’t know they have it, reports the charity – adding that “an alarmingly high number of glaucoma patients who are prescribed eye drops do not use them correctly, risking serious damage to their vision”.

As part of World Glaucoma Week, Glaucoma UK has released its ‘Easy read: putting in your eye drops’ guide providing simple, easy-to-understand advice on how to put in eye drops, with clear text and step-by-step diagrams. It will also answer common questions, such as how to schedule in multiple drops and what to do if the drop misses their eye.

Joanna Bradley, head of support services at Glaucoma UK, said: “One of our aims as a charity is to help people with glaucoma to live well. We regularly hear from patients who struggle with putting in their drops, either due to the bottle designs or because they don’t know how best to get the drops in their eye. They are often very anxious about the subsequent impact this might have on their vision. In fact, eye drops are one of the top three reasons that people call our helpline.

“We understand that healthcare services aren’t always able to commit sufficient time to show each patient how to put in their eye drops. So, we wanted to help by providing patients with a useful step-by-step guide containing tips and advice on how to do this. We’re very excited to be launching this new resource, which we hope will benefit patients and healthcare professionals alike.”

The guide can be downloaded and ordered free of charge and the charity is encouraging all healthcare professionals to make glaucoma patients aware of it by displaying it in hospitals and waiting rooms.