Health Status in our Communities: What Should Optometry Be Trying to Achieve?

Abstract

In recreational life style as well as work patterns, Australians place particular demands on their eyes. The motor vehicle is our major mode of transportation. The weather can be glary at most times of the year, and much of the Australian's leisure time is spent outdoors where there can be discomfort from sunlight reflected from cars, roads and buildings. We watch a lot of sport, either directly or on television. Television watching itself ranks high as a national pastime. These activities are quite apart from tasks which we more commonly associate with eye irritation and discomfort, such as reading. By tradition, Australians have been reluctant to wear spectacles, despite such overall demands. During the last 25 years, however, we have become much more ready to use one or more pairs of spectacles. The responsibility for guiding choices about eye care and the fitting of appropriate spectacles where necessary falls very much to the optometrist. In turn, the optometric profession finds itself taking on increasing responsibility for planning vision care services in the community — in making decisions about what it wants to achieve and how and when we are going to achieve it. And these decisions have been affected crucially, in recent years, by new challenges in the community and socio-economic environment.