Has anyone managed to get behavioural Optometrist on NHS or private health care?

[lisad123]

Dd2 has tracking problems and its been suggested we could see a behavioural Optometrist. I have rang local team, but cost is scarcy :(
Anyone got this on NHS? Dh has private health care via his work, anyone used this?
tia

I think Ian Jordan in Scotland is on the NHS.

www.jordanseyes.com/

He msg ages ago on another forum, I am sure he said assessment was free and the only cost would be towards glasses and lenses if needed, but it would be minimal. about £100.

I'm south so cost of getting to Scotland would be more than paying for it myself. Thanks though

Dr Annette Grounds is the lead clincian at the CPOC vision training clinic at (what used to be called) Colchester County Hospital. Search on the board as it has been discussed previously.

BUPA harpenden

DH's health care didn't cover it so we had to pay the full price privately through a BO in Milton Keynes. However it wasn't as much as I had feared. The whole course of VT including assessments and reports was about £500.

(it was worth every penny...........)

Inital assesment in East grinstead is £145 and then about £70ish quid per apt but our apts are only about once a quarter.

Ask your local NHS orthoptist where the nearest SPLD clinic is. We went to our local NHS optometrist and she spotted my sons tracking issues, although we'd already had it identified with a different private assessment. She told us to go to the GP with the name of our nearest behavioural optometrist or Specific Learning Difficulty Clinic. This is 16 miles away but as our PCT don't have the service they didn't oppose the out of area referral.

Here they confirmed ds1 had visual tracking problems that are now resolved following 4 months of daily exercises. Also they diagnosed visual stress aka Meares irlen syndrome. It is only vs or mi where you could potentially start having to pay for glasses as they are produced specifically for each person and are specialised and these lenses are not available on NHS.

Visual tracking difficulties does not mean you should need to pay out on lenses or frames!

Too often these conditions are lumped together and while some may be co morbid at times it is not true to say they are always, and the treatments are very different.

I will end up saying for ds1 lenses one day but not until a) he chooses the same colour overlay consistently and b) he stops sitting on / twisting his glasses!

Which area are you in?

I'm in Herts, and know its £200 for assessment and £60 per session there after

But it shouldn't be costing you anything! In an ideal world of course. Unfortunately you're not near me otherwise I could've recommended the NHS one where we go. It's within an NHS Hospital, is part of the Opthalmic Surgery department. might be worth ringing your neighbouring boroughs hospitals and just asking?

Hoping that someone still watches this thread - we have just paid for this privately at optometrist and been prescribed low prescription glasses fro writing and reading. My daughter is only 5 and I am loathe to go down this path without knowing it is correct. Is this sort of thing assisted by glasses or is it rather exercises that might help? Thanks very much.

Hi,
My ds had vision therapy and it did help him tremendously, although he has now been found to be dyslexic. Although not all visual stress is part of dyslexia, his was. Some of his difficulties have remained but I honestly don't think he would have learnt to read without the exercises. He is now a good reader but still doesn't read well aloud.

He had glasses first but I didn't notice a huge difference with them. I think it was the exercises that made the difference. Was expensive though. I would give the3 glasses a try first as they do work for some people apparently. I was told that they wouldn't start vision therapy until age 7 but it was 10 years ago when ds had it and I know advice does change.

Thanks - it was just that we have been given glasses that is all. No exercises ( or do these come months later?). And I don't know if it is an old wives tale but my DH thinks if you have glasses unnecessarily you will end up with them etc if eyes get used to them so want to check that what we have been told is standard treatment.

You need to find out what the glasses were for. If they were for visual stress rather than short or long sightedness then we were told they won't affect vision. Behavioural optometrists are specialised in a different area to opticians and they seem to deal with the visual system rather than 'sight'. DS had 20/20 vision but still wore glasses for reading to relieve the stress. It didn't affect his vision (and that was ten years ago).
However, recently he had an eye test with an optician who said his sight was fine but, as he was complaining(again) of words moving. We had another test from an optometrist who said he was suffering visual stress again and gave him glasses.
Not everyone believes that optometrists are correct but I can only speak from experience and say that it worked for us. Not all optometrists carry out vision therapy. It is very specialised and also, unfortunately, expensive. The website is babo.co.uk and gives a list of where to find them in the uk.
Also, some children benefit from the coloured overlays so this might be worth looking into. It can also be expensive but there are websites that allow you to change background colours and can give you an indication. Your dd would probably be too young at the moment but in a year or so it might be worth looking at if you still feel concerned.

this is exactly what we have been given - glasses with very low blue tint but I have not really understood process hence my questions. I think will need to revert for clarification. Thanks very much.

Hiya everyone,

I know I'm a bit late to this thread, but does anyone know any BOs in or near Glasgow by any chance

Yeah same here I was also looking for one around Glasgow, if anyone knows at all that'd be amazing!

BABO website should help locate one. We paid around £100 for assessment/report and glasses free with NHS voucher. Since found a hospital dept orthoptist who can do same sort of tests, but glad we found a BO who helped put us on right track with diagnosis and exercises.

That's amazing! Was it worth it overall

Yes deffo

Let me know if any issues identified, we have a great sheet from NHS orthoptist for classroom adaptations and games x

hello - I'm also interested in this (2019!!), I'm in South Bucks and would really like to find out whether I can get this on the NHS. Thanks for the BABO website, I've found an optometrist, but turns out to be quite pricey! Will obviously go that route, but not sure why others have found it on the NHS and I cannot seem to be able to find anything?
Anybody else in Bucks?
Thanks!

There are a couple in South Bucks, but they're pricey. DS saw one in Beaconsfield and there's another in Gerrards Cross, but I'm not aware of any NHS provision. Beaconsfield was about £150 for assessment and I think £70 thereafter, but we only had Colourimetry and that was much cheaper (but the glasses weren't). It was also the wrong thing to do, he needs his tracking checked, but that's another discussion altogether!

Hey hun, which area are you based in? I am also looking for affordable vision therapy for my girl.
I am based in east
London