National eye-health awareness campaign launched

Optometry Australia (OA) has launched a national eye-health awareness campaign designed to encourage the public to get their eyes checked regularly.The ‘Good vision for life’ campaign includes online advertisents, social media and video, as well as radio and a moderate television campaign. It has been designed to appeal to a target audience of 40-59-year-old Australians, the majority of whom have children under 18, are still in the workforce and have ageing parents.According to OA, the campaign responds to Australians’ passivity towards their eye health and the alarming fact that almost half of the Australian population suffers some form of long-term vision impairment – the vast majority of which can be treated, and in some cases avoided, through regular eye examinations . Far too many Australians are waiting until they have symptoms of vision deterioration or eye conditions before seeing an optometrist, OA president Mrs Kate Gifford said. Some eye diseases don’t actually show any symptoms for a long time, but when they do appear, it is often too late for prevention or early detection, and significant vision loss may be the result. In addition, the campaign aims to reduce the $16.6 billion economic burden that vision disorders have on the Australian economy. That’s a massive $45.5 million per day or $1.9 million per hour, Mrs Gifford stated.She noted that unlike many other community health campaigns, ‘Good vision for life’ does not dwell on fear. Instead, the campaign’s key message is the value of prevention and early detection of eye disease. While we needed to highlight the consequences of not seeking regular eye-health examinations, we also wanted to create a campaign that motivated action and not dwell on dread, Mrs Gifford explained.As part of the campaign, OA has launched a new consumer-facing website, goodvisionforlife.com.au, which contains a wide range of eye-health and vision information as well as a ‘Find an optometrist’ function that prompts site visitors to take immediate action.OA’s 4,300 mbers are also being encouraged to participate in the campaign through a range of promotional opportunities to increase their own local community’s understanding of the need for regular preventive eye-health examinations.