One in every five people will start to live with sight loss in their lifetime. What can pharmacy do to help?

In this episode, we are joined by Lisa Riste, Nishi Gangani, and Kim Bassi to explore their involvement in FLAG-Me, an innovative project aiming to improve medication safety for people with visual impairments. What challenges do patients with sight loss face when accessing and taking medicines, and what simple but effective steps can you take to help them? Let’s find out.

Resources

• FLAG-me
• Royal National Institute of Blind People
• Henshaws, Sight loss support
• eMC, patient information leaflets
• FutureLearn, Supporting Medicine Use by Older People with Visual and/or Hearing Impairment (free online course)
• #KnowYourDrops, Eye Drop Compliance Campaign to Achieve Medicines Optimisation in Ophthalmology (research presentation/poster)

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Learning outcomes

By the end of this episode, listeners will be able to:

• Describe the key challenges that patients with visual impairments face when accessing and using medicines safely.
• Analyse how pharmacy teams can integrate FLAG-Me and other practical strategies into their workflows to improve patient safety and accessibility.
• Evaluate the importance of patient-centred communication and collaboration in developing safer, more inclusive pharmacy services.