Taking Advantage of Free Eye Care Services Every Year

Many of us may probably have never seen an Optometrist or Ophthalmologist in our entire life. For those who may have been fortunate to have a visit to the eye clinic, it happens to be because of some predicament they found themselves with, some pain, some discomfort, some trauma, etc.

I say fortunate because anytime you get to visit the eye clinic irrespective of what the cause may have been you get a comprehensive eye examination and if anything like glaucoma and other conditions that could have silently killed your sight one day seems to be lurking somewhere, it is seen and you may or the predicament may have just ended up saving your sight.

The idea that people never really even have an eye examination until something goes wrong until they lose their vision or whatever the cause may have been is something that always bothers me, and so whenever I meet such patients I inquire as to why they may not have had any such care till now and the majority of them, well I am sure this is based on my geographical location however, they would say eyecare is expensive.

But how are you saying it is expensive when you haven't had your eyes checked before, not even once, and they go like, well my friend got the eyes checked once and they said it is expensive and they don't have money, others would also say we don't see anything wrong with our eyes, our sight is fine, my parents have good sight so I believe mine will always be fine. For others, it is the time they have to spend at the clinic to wait to be seen though and my question then goes like, so your sight is not worth the wait?

The beauty of eyecare is that it is not something you necessarily have to do every month, thus if you have had your eyes checked and your Optometrist after a comprehensive examination confirms you are good and that everything is fine, then it would be advised to check it at least twice every year.

And so to my patients who claim they could not afford it, I give them this hack and I have decided to share this with you today so you could make use of it too, these are also great times to get yourself checked because not only is eye care free during these times but lots of things comes with discounts and the focus internationally is on the eye and so you get to have a very comprehensive care looking out for all the possible things that could potentially blind you.

• Glacuoma Awareness Month;

The month of March is the perfect month to get your eyes checked and you get to do this for free if you time it right. In the month of March there is a whole week dedicated to Glaucoma awareness, its education and its screening. Now as part of this international celebration and this is an almost certainty, eye clinic all across the globe offers some free service or care at one point in time within the month of March or the week of the awareness celebration.

All you have to do is be on the lookout for that information from the nearest eye clinic near you, check their website or social media platform for these promos and when the time i due pass through for your free comprehensive eye care and you should be good to go. You get to take care of your eyes and you get to do it for free too.

• World Sight Day

On the second Thursday of October every year the world gets to celebrate world sight day and during this particular day free eye screening as well as educational sessions are organized all across the globe. Whiles every year there is a theme that guides the celebration, for instance this year our focus was on loving our eyes at the work place, when you find yourself being care for or benefitting from this program you get comprehensive care.

And so that is another simple and beautiful hack for you and just like that you have had your eyes checked atleast twice within the year and you didn't even get to pay for a penny in terms of consultation and even if you may need drugs, glasses or anything else for your eye, the discounts during these times would make things so much easier for you.

Further Reading

_{Murthy G. V. S. (2023). Targeting the vision of workers: World Sight Day 2023. Indian journal of ophthalmology, 71(10), 3275–3276. https://doi.org/10.4103/IJO.IJO_2431_23.}

_{Heidary, F., Heidary, R., Jamali, H., & Gharebaghi, R. (2015). Afraid of the Dark; Raising Awareness of Societies Each Year during World Glaucoma Week. Iranian journal of public health, 44(5), 716–717..}

_{Zorić Geber, M., Lončarić, K., Škunca Herman, J., Krolo, I., Tadić, R., Belak, M., Koluder, A., Kaurić, Ž., Knežević, L., Novak-Lauš, K., Runjić, T., & Vatavuk, Z. (2022). The analysis of the glaucoma screening event results obtained during the World Glaucoma Week in Zagreb, Croatia. International ophthalmology, 42(10), 3129–3136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-022-02312-7}

_{Hennig, A., Kumar, J., Singh, A. K., Ansari, A., Singh, S., Gurung, R., & Foster, A. (2002). World Sight Day and cataract blindness. The British journal of ophthalmology, 86(7), 830–831. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjo.86.7.830}