What a difference a pair of glasses can make...

When I first started working at Ben’s Centre Wendy suggested I just sit with the clients and get to know them. One of the clients that I sat with quite a lot liked to do the crossword and he was always asking to borrow my reading glasses. I used to lend them to him and he was so overjoyed at actually been able to see what he was doing clearly that he used to try to keep them for as long as possible to read the paper! We built up a bit of a rapport and when he was very intoxicated he used to call me, “sexy sparkling Sue”! This used to cause the staff much amusement, as they are probably not the adjectives they would have thought of to describe me. (We had to remind the client too of our boundaries).Lending the glasses caused us to see that there was a real need in this area as a lot of the clients had difficulty seeing to read and write. So we went to “Pound Stretcher” and invested in a few pairs of glasses. I know in a perfect world we should have been trying to get them to see an Optician, but unfortunately we are not living in a perfect world and it would have been impossible for most to go. Well it was one of the most brilliant ideas we have had. They were instantly used and the comments we received were so good. They began to do so much more for themselves. Day to day simple tasks became empowering and liberating for them. They began to use the telephone much more and looked numbers up in the directory. Clients began to try to fill forms in for themselves and read the letters they received too. It became a lovely sight to see clients with glasses on reading the paper everyday and also starting to want to read other things too. All through one pair of glasses costing £1! Wendy later discovered other glasses that were more expensive that had been reduced to a £1, which was an amazing find. Always got her eye on a bargain!! We tried to get them to hand them in at the end of the day and we were not always that successful, as they really did love them. They liked to look at themselves in them and when we told them that they made them look so distinguished they loved it. Well we still continue to give them out and to date we must have given out at least 75 pairs. A small inexpensive tool to use but one that has given many part of their life back and made it a little more enjoyable. On top of that I manage to keep my glasses too if I can only remember where I left them!