LOW VISION

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Community or hospital based low vision services offer information and advice about magnifiers, lighting and other tools to maximize vision. This practical support is designed for people whose visual impairment does not require hospital based treatment and those whose ophthalmological treatment has been completed or cannot be treated.

South East London Vision (SELVIS) Factsheets

Please click on the links below for fact sheets for each of the boroughs supported by South East London Vision (SELVIS). SELVIS supports people living with sight loss in South East London.

New Website for the Visually Impaired

Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust have set up the website www.southlondonvision.org to signpost visually impaired people in South London to helpful agencies. Please pass on the details to patients and relatives for whom it might be useful. Please click here to access the website.

St Thomas’ Hospital

St Thomas Hospital offers a weekly Low Vision clinic for patients previously seen within their eye department. A multi-disciplinary team including an Optometrist, Paediatric Eye Clinic Liaison Officer and a Low Vision Aids demonstrator provide practical support.

The Eye Clinic Liaison Officer can also help guide people access help from charities and local authorities as necessary. Once a month, RSBC comes to talk to people of working age requiring advice and they also run a club for visually impaired children and their parents.

There is occasionally a Wednesday Club run by the clinic for people to learn a bit more about their eye disease and what might be available to them in the community with the aid of Guide Dogs, Action for Blind People, RNIB and GSTT.

Socially, a new choir for visually impaired people has just started. Also there is a special Low Vision Day annually.

Kings College Hospital

The Low Vision Clinic at Kings College Hospital deals with patients living across nine Greater London Boroughs (Bexley, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Westminster) and operates weekly on a Tuesday. Extra low vision clinics are provided at the hospital to address any waiting lists that may develop.

The Low Vision Practitioner occasionally acts as an informal Eye Clinic Liaison Officer (ECLO), providing support and signposting after diagnosis to residents across all nine Boroughs where it is assessed that need is urgent, as there no formal provision in place. There are currently no community based low vision facilities in many of the South London Boroughs covered by Kings College Hospital.

Community Low Vision Clinic, Southwark

A Community Low Vision Clinic based at the Southwark Resource Centre, Braddenham Close, is being delivered in partnership with community optometrists, St Thomas’ Low Vision Team and the Rehabilitation team.

BlindAid

A local charity that provides emotional and practical support to blind and visually impaired people living within the 12 inner London boroughs and the City of London. All services are free of charge and their core service involves regular Home Visiting, but they also can provide Telephone Support Service, long-term loan of radio/audio equipment and occasionally offer grants to support independent living. Within LSL, they have launched a tri-borough community project, providing free classes in IT, Art & Craft, Cooking & healthy eating and dance.

Blind Aid
Lantern House, 102 Bermondsey Street, London. SE1 3UB
020 7403 6184