Professional emotional support at Eye Hospitals

[Steven Williams]

Thanks to Anne who e mailed me the transcript of the 2011 conference to be put on DVD. Copied and pasted from the transcript:-

There are other people giving emotional support. Eye Clinic Liaison Officers (ECLOS) are based in hospitals and give support when people are given a diagnosis

Eye Clinic Liason Officers (ECLOS) = which Eye Hospitals in the UK offer this service and when was it introduced? How can you find out?

[Anne Klepacz]

I hesitate to put up another link after my failure with the research priorities one, but a google search produced this www.rnib.org.uk/professionals/health/se ... /eclo.aspx which then leads to a register of hospitals with ECLOs. My PC is playing up this morning, so I haven't opened the link to the register to see how recent it is.
Anne

[Steven Williams]

Thanks for the link Anne.

I have downloaded the word document factsheet and register of Eye Hospitals with ECLOs from the link you have kindly supplied and it appears that there is an ECLO in every hospital in the UK. I note the factsheet was last updated in April 2012.

The factsheet defines an ECLO as follows:-

Eye Clinic Liaison Officers (ECLOs), or similar early intervention support staff, work closely with medical and nursing staff in the eye clinic, and the sensory team in social services. They provide those recently diagnosed with an eye condition with the practical and emotional support they need to understand their diagnosis, deal with their sight loss and maintain their independence.

Most importantly, ECLOs have the time to dedicate to patients following consultation, so they can discuss the impact the condition may have on their life.

As a member of this registered charity I am shocked and disappointed that it does not appear, unless you attended the charity's 2011 conference, to have been brought to members/KCers attention. Have member/KCers s been notified and somehow I have been missed? I cannot find anything here on the website about it nor a forum thread about it. As this charitys primary purpose is to support UK Kcers I am concerned and disturbed by this.

Could you explain why ever not as I am sure you would agree that if this service really does exist it could be extremely helpful and beneficial to KCers. Could you also inform us when ECLOs came into existence and when the charity were notified or first became aware of the service.

Are there any KCers prior to this thread who were aware of this professional service and have used it? If so could you inform us here how you discovered it and whether or not you found it helpful and beneficial.

I have never been made aware when attending MREH appointments or seen any notification or literature concerning an ECLO service at the hospital.

I have contacted the ECLO telephone number for Manchester Royal Eye Hospital on the factsheet which is the Hospital switchboard number this morning . The operator who answered my call was unaware of an ECLO contact number or the name of the person who is the designated ECLO at the hospital

[Anne Klepacz]

We have invited the newly appointed nurse counsellor at Moorfields speak at our AGM next week (details on the events ticker on the home page of this site www.keratoconus.group.org.uk) The current Moorfields ECLO will also be there, so I hope people attending will be able to report back. And I'll do a summary of what's said for the next newsletter.
As far as I know, ECLOs have only been around for about 2 years. I believe they're funded by RNIB and Action for Blind People, precisely because emotional support has been virtually non-existent in eye clinics for many years. But I also suspect they are massively over-worked when you think about all the sight threatening eye conditions that eye clinics deal with. And so probably concentrate their efforts on the people who are told there is nothing more the medical staff can do for them and who would otherwise be left in limbo. But we'll hear more next week.
Anne