MEC ImpactReport 2024 flipBook v1.0 single pages - Flipbook - Page 17
17
Pioneering new approaches
to supporting patients
70% of people who lose
Emotional, psychological and practical support was
launched at Moorfields over 10 years ago and has
their sight and 40% of
developed into highly valued and life-changing patient
people with low vision
support services. The Eye Clinic Liaison Officers (ECLOs)
suffer from some level
are a vital part of this offer, giving patients advice,
of depression and/or
confidence and connecting them with others.
anxiety as a result.
[3]
We’re delighted to be
and often traumatic journey.
was traditionally focused
supporting the ECLOs’ work,
In fact, vision is the sense that
on treating their eyes, and
enabled through generous
people fear losing the most,
many did not have access
support from the Marie-
and sight loss and blindness
to emotional, practical or
Louise von Motesiczky
have a disproportionate
psychological support that
Charitable Trust.
impact on quality of life.
could help them learn to live
Adapting to life with sight loss
Despite this, care for people
with sight loss.
can be a long-lasting, difficult,
who are losing their sight
Offering help, when it’s needed most
Just over a decade ago,
and the certificate of vision
helped to train and develop
Moorfields launched new
impairment (CVI) team*. The
ECLOs.
patient support services as
introduction of these services
The new services supported
part of its ambition to offer
was a hugely innovative step
patients by providing
world-class practical and
and one of the first dedicated
therapeutic psychological
psychological support to
hospital-based patient support
intervention, advice on living
patients alongside clinical
services in the UK.
with sight loss, right through
Following on from this, the
to help completing paperwork
charity funded a new ECLO
and accessing community
coordinator to join the
support services.
service. Their role was to
The services, then and now,
bring the ECLO team, which
support patients from a range
is spread across Moorfields’
of age groups - from 17 right
These pioneering services
many sites, under a single
up to 94 years old, across all
included Eye Clinic Liaison
management structure and
ethnicities and backgrounds.
Officers (ECLOs) giving
create a strategy for the
Patient feedback highlights
patients advice, confidence
growth and development of
just how impactful these
and connections, counsellors
the programme. They also
services have been:
care and world-class eye
research. The idea was to offer
comprehensive emotional,
psychological and practical
support to patients when they
needed it the most.
It is not only about learning to live
It put me at ease and reassured me
with your condition, but how to tackle
my feelings were normal. It was great to
the wider world.
get things off my mind.
*A Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) formally certifies that someone has sight loss.
