LAST night, businesses in Morningside came together to do their bit to tackle homelessness in the city.
The event was organised by the Morningside Traders Association and featured free eye and ear exams for people experiencing homelessness as well as donations from businesses around the locality.
The event was organised by Specsavers clinical director Michael O’Kane and hosted by the Morningside Road branch, but donations flooded in from businesses across the area.
Homeless people are six times more likely to have a visual impairment than the general public but, thanks to staff at Specsavers in Morningside, they have now been able to get their eyesight and hearing tested.
Donations were received from Houseproud of Morningside, Mathnasium, Waitrose, Toys Galore, and 181 Delicatessen, among others, who were happy to supply their goods and lend a helping hand.
Michael also volunteers with the Vision Care for Homeless People (VCHP) charity and publicised the event through his contacts there.
Speaking today on setting up the event, Michael said: “By nature, people who are experiencing homelessness have a lot on their plate, and don’t necessarily know where they’re going to be staying tomorrow night.
“To plan anything, really, is a challenge – which is one of the barriers to them accessing healthcare.
“People experiencing homelessness are six times more likely to suffer visual impairments.
“There’s lots of reasons why they don’t access these things. Scotland is fantastic in that we provide a really comprehensive free NHS eye examination.
“Some of the issues we have is that people are worried about the cost of these things.”
Michael stated that most of the homeless people he works with at the charity do not know that eye exams are available free of charge.
The event was as much about informing people as it was about providing short-term relief.
Aside from free eye and ear exams, Morningside businesses also provided, food, supplies, and a free optical coherence tomography (OCT) exam.
They even handed out a hearing aid to one patient.
The Morningside Traders Association, who Michael operates closely with, put out a call to businesses in the area to help with the event and provide goods.
Staff at Specsavers were happy to volunteer to help as well, taking on hours of extra work unpaid.
On the preventability of blindness and hearing loss, Michael added: “It’s a really sad situation that over half of all blindness could have been prevented.
“People need to know that eye examinations are free.
“The majority of these conditions that lead to blindness are asymptomatic, and early detection is key in terms of helping to prevent these issues.”
Michael is the clinical director of three Specsavers clinics in Edinburgh and works closely with homeless people through VCHP.
He says that they’ve been planning to host an event like this for years, but this was the first time that it was so successful.
He added: “One of the reasons I went into optometry was that I wanted to make the world a better place through the small skillset that I have.
“And I want to make sure that I’m genuinely helping people. We don’t just sell glasses, we literally save sight.
“There’s a few situations where we’ve genuinely saved lives.”
