Did optician overstep her role?

[Username427]

Something has annoyed me and I am not sure whether it is me being unreasonable so posting for a different perspective on the issue.

I took my elderly father for an eye appointment regarding his declining eyesight due to macular. He went in to see the optician on his own, he is perfectly able to communicate and is mobile. About 4 weeks later he had a text message from GP surgery to ask. him to make a telephone appointment to discuss communication from the optician. After worrying about the reason for this and concern for his eyesight, the GP appointment turned out to be a check on his mental health because the optician through he seemed depressed. GP perfectly happy with his mental state and no cause for concern.

The optician has never seen my father before, he is 94 limited eyesight but lives with my mother and I am their main caregiver when they need help with anything they cant manage. He may not smile a lot but then he struggles to see so it's a constant strain for him but he is a lovely gentle man with no depressive tendencies ever. I feel offended that instead of speaking to either my mother or myself this was done out of turn. My father was not asked for his consent for her to raise this with his GP.

I am tempted to ring and ask why she didnt speak to me, my telephone number was given for contact and I spoke to the receptionist a week later to arrange a date to pick up a magnifying glass for him so they will be aware of my power of attorney regarding health and welfare..

Am I being to sensitive?

I think so, yes. It doesn’t do any harm to check, and it might have been more awkward for the optician to check in front of your father. Do you think you’re feeling like it’s a bad reflection on you/your care? I think I might feel a bit criticised. But I think probably better one happy pensioner has an unneeded chat with the GP, that an unhappy one who could be helped is missed?

Yes perhaps you are being too sensitive.

My feeling about this is how amazing that someone is trying to join up services to support the elderly. Perhaps it was overkill but I’m impressed that the optician was thinking holistically and looking out for your dad - maybe a bit misguided but better than thinking “he seems depressed… not my problem.”

I am inclined to be generous on this topic because my mum’s optician saved her life by noticing that she had eyesight problems indicating an underlying health problem and suggesting my mum (then age 50) should see her GP.

I think a lot of opticians do see eyes as more than just a window to the soul, also to a whole host of other things.

One man’s busybody is another man’s hero.

Surely she wouldn’t discuss this with you because of patient confidentiality? He may have told you a different story.

I am concerned that she did not ask my father if he was feeling depressed before jumping to conclusions. He and my mother were worrying for over a week wondering why the GP needed to discuss his optician visit.

Not sure why this ended up in Alcohol support, to be clear no alcohol involved

@Username427 I can't be the only one wondering why you've posted this under the topic of alcohol support.
To answer your query, I think you've over reacted and the optician might've seen something of which you're unaware.

Cross post

Of course they can’t speak to You. You might be the reason he’s depressed. I appreciate that he’s fine but the optician did her job

@PauliesWalnuts the OP said the optician is aware she has POA, so could discuss it with her.

I had POA for my mother, but it would not have bothered me if the optician contacted the GP. Possibly they wanted to ensure your dad saw the GP and had that conversation direct. As you say, your dad is perfectly capable of communicating himself.

He must have said some thing that concerned her. Did he tell you that the optitcian had contacted the GP and he was worried? If not, then he isn’t sharing his concerns with you. If yes, the why didn’t you encourage him to ring the optitican or ring them on his behalf.

Why would the optician have spoken to you or your mother, when you’ve said yourself your father is able to communicate for himself?
She had a concern and raised it the appropriate way with the appropriate person. Had she raised it with you, would you have said ‘no of course he’s not depressed, he’s just old’ without really knowing for certain? His GP is qualified to assess and check professionally.
Really, you should be grateful for people like this optician taking the time to care.

that made me laugh. Ok point taken but he is not depressed, never has been and I have power of attorney which they are aware of so could easily have spoken to me about a health concern if they didnt feel like bringing it up with him.

To add, having power of attorney doesn’t mean everything should go through you, it means you are able to act on their behalf if they are unable to.

The POA for health doesn’t kick in unless the person has lost capacity, which doesn’t seem to be case here. Your dad can give you permission to speak to people on his behalf, but that’s not the same as POA.

If you weren’t in the appointment with him, how can you judge whether it was the right/wrong call?

Always better to refer these things than to ignore them. It’s nice she cared.

It was about a week after his appointment that the GP clinic sent the request. No we didnt contact the optician because we were unaware of what the issue was about. I see him daily and if she had said he seems depressed I would have reassured her that he has a loving attentive extended family who visit regularly. We are an extremely close family and this is why I feel like it is an attack on my care.

So the consensus is I am being over sensitive so thank you all for. your feedback.

How do you know she didn’t? Your father has told you that but quite possible - untrue

Which is what he has done within NHS and GP practice.

. I see him daily and if she had said he seems depressed I would have reassured her that he has a loving attentive extended family who visit regularly. We are an extremely close family and this is why I feel like it is an attack on my care.

and that is great. But he could STILL be depressed

I am concerned that she did not ask my father if he was feeling depressed before jumping to conclusions

I'm assuming you don't work in a health professional role OP? It would be unusual to ask a patient outright 'are you depressed???'. We gather info from other questions/observations/behaviours etc and the optician clearly was concerned. I'm sorry you feel they over stepped, but its coming from a place of concern and the next person may not have the support your dad does.

Because I asked him if she mentioned anything to him about being depressed and he said no.

I imagine that there is a pathway opticians have to take, which goes through the GP. The optician will have discussed her concerns, and the GP acted on that.

I'd be pleased that professionals were looking out for my parent!

And you don't seem to understand how POAs work.

But he isnt, that is the point. GP confirmed this as well.

it is quite probably that he’s forgotten or not being honest with you because he doesn’t want to admit to feeling depressed to you.

With good reason it would seem. You would say he wasn’t.

Depressed people often don't realise that they're depressed.