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?

Not if he has capacity, she can't. H&W LPA can only be activated once capacity is lost

Thank you for your helpful comments. I am obviously over sensitive and overprotective of my dear parents and will put this to bed now.

I think the optician should be commended for caring. I'm sure many elders experience depression or elder abuse and it goes unreported. It wouldn't be appropriate for them to discuss it with someone other than the client themselves or their GP.

You seem unusually offended by the referral.

Were you present at the gp apppintment where the gp said absolutely no concerns about his mental health?

Me too

It would have been time and effort on her part

he is a lovely gentle man with no depressive tendencies ever.

This seems like an odd thing to say. "Depressive tendencies" don't just happen to non-lovely, non-gentle men, OP.

Yes that is true. The OP implied that her use of the POA had been accepted but also said her dad is perfectly capable of communicating, and if he is then the optician was right to deal with dad and GP direct, without involving OP.

Your dad is a vulnerable adult and the optician did exactly the right thing.

id be glad that people are looking out for him.

respecting his privacy means not discussing it with you

please don’t try to put the optician off caring and doing the right thing.

I think the way to look at it is to be thankful for the extra care given to him, be glad he isn't depressed, and file it under 'things we'll laugh about as a family over the dinner table'

Better they raise it with the gp than he slips through the net and nobody noticed. The news is full of stories where signs are missed, far better it’s raised

I'm really impressed I think she did a good thing, a great example of joined up care. Several of my family members have had hospital referrals after opticians appointments and I think they're underrated in the work they do for people's health. The GP is the right person to do the assessment. It's difficult for a person themselves or family to assess if someone is depressed as they may not know all the symptoms, it is not just about sadness or loneliness, and certainly not to do with how well cared for someone is or how often they see family. It can be the first indicator/similar symptoms to other things too so is good to get checked out, if she's spotted a concern she should report it.

You can never be 100% sure...
Maybe your DF wasn't alone when speaking to the GP, maybe he feels giving you the authority to speak to his GP about him on his behalf is fine but not for this.

I live with my DP and see my adult DC weekly.
Not one of them would think that I suffer from depression and I feel as of yet don't need to know.

You’re not being oversensitive.

It’s plain weird that they would do that. Respectfully, what does the optician expect the Doctors are going to do when he’s 94. Start him on antidepressants for the next year? I can’t imagine I will be too spritely and excited for life at 94!

I don’t see why it was any of the opticians business to get involved. I didn’t even know the opticians did that!

I think this is in the wrong section, alcohol support?

I do think it seems a bit of an overstep. I mean how can an optician even tell if someone is depressed or not? You can't tell that just by looking at someone. Unless he confided in her he was feeling this way? Otherwise I don't see why she needed to go that far.

The thing is if an optician started asking me questions about my MH I would not feel comfortable answering. I would only speak about those things to an MH professional.

I assume it came from a place of concern. Or maybe they had some training recently about raising awareness about depression or something.

@Username427 plenty of people with a “loving attentive extended family” get depressed. Good family doesn’t guarantee happiness. You’re taking this as a personal attack on your care, when in fact this was just a healthcare professional doing their job. You should be grateful people are looking out for your family.

I wouldn't take it up with her, she tried to do something nice. Maybe she has done something similar before and it turned out to be correct - she could've saved someones life. Yes it's not ideal in your case but sometimes better to be safe than sorry. Does it really matter now?

@BillieWiper there is definitely such a thing as a depressed demeanour.

Looking sad? Being quiet? I'd imagine I'd be having a fairly depressed looking demeanour if I was in my 90s with lots of health problems. I guess if it came from a good place then there's no harm in it being raised. If he's not depressed then there's nothing to worry about.

I actually think it's brilliant they did that. So many lives are lost because we miss the signs of depression in people.

I haven't the vaguest idea 'fgs'.

OP seemed to think it was overstepping and possibly being nosy.

My best mate has PoA for me (I have no family) but my GP doesn't ring her every time I go.