“No matter where they are, even if they’re in residential aged care, nursing homes, veteran centres, if we can just get one son or daughter to say ‘my mum needs this, my dad needs this’, call me up and I can go there.” Meet mobile optometrist SHANE BROOKMAN.

Shane Brookman, former owner of Capital Eye and founder of Angel Eyecare, a mobile optometry service, has returned to Canberra after spending five years living abroad.

The optometrist has more than 20 years of experience and he says his return comes with a particular mission: to help as many people access affordable, comprehensive optometry services as possible. 

He says the idea of a mobile optometry service came to him last year, when he returned to Australia to visit his grandmother, just before she passed away.

“When I saw her in that very sad state, she had crooked glasses, she was half blind from cataracts, diabetes… she’d been there for years and no-one came to help her with her eyes,” Shane says.

“She’d never been out to see anyone. She was just languishing, like many old people in residential care, not being able to see. 

“She passed away shortly thereafter, and I said: ‘Gosh, there’s got to be a better way’, and, well, this is what I do for a living. I can help people.”

Shane says Angel Eyecare can provide comprehensive eye exams that check for glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts and corrective eyewear from the comfort of their home, no matter where they are in the greater Canberra region. 

“There’s plenty of people sitting at their homes right now that can’t get to their local optometrist because of mobility issues, and need to have a medical health professional come to them,” says Shane. 

“No matter where they are, even if they’re in residential aged care, nursing homes, veteran centres, if we can just get one son or daughter to say ‘my mum needs this, my dad needs this’, call me up and I can go there.”

In the last five years, Shane says mobile optometry technology has rapidly grown, with portable devices that can photograph the back of a person’s eye and show if they have diabetes, high blood pressure or cataracts, and devices to take photos of the front of the eye to look out for cancers.

He says they even have portable equipment to check the power of someone’s eye, so even if they can’t speak, he can still measure what glasses they need.

“If I can help someone with a gift of sight in their last golden era of life, it’s a huge shift to their quality of life,” he says.

“You can prescribe someone a new pair of glasses where they can see the faces of their relatives, or see letters, or watch TV, or read the newspaper, and they can maximise the quality of life in those last important years.

“I wish that for myself and everybody.”

Part of the service is a free report of vision and eye health findings, which Shane says they can then give to members of their family or carers, ensuring everyone is on the same page. 

Shane says the key message optometrists want to get out is that prevention is the cure, because 90 per cent of blindness is avoidable.

“Cataracts, macular disease, glaucoma, diabetes, they’re the top ones that cause blindness in this first-world country that we live in,” says Shane.

This isn’t the first time Shane has dedicated his time and resources to help those in need, having established the eye clinic at Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services in 2017, after learning there is a 20-year health gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

“My grandmother was indigenous, and so from a very young age, she kind of drummed into me, ‘this is part of who you are, don’t forget this side of who you are’. 

“So I felt very moved by that, and I approached Winnunga and said: ‘I’m an optometrist, I’ve got a special interest here because of my family connection, I’ve got a practice in Barton, how can I help?’”

He says they put together a budget, received a small grant from the government and set up the eye clinic at Winnunga, where he worked every Friday until moving abroad. 

Shane says his ultimate aim is to improve lives through the gift of sight, including for patients who may not be able to afford or easily access comprehensive eye care.

“It’s all about removing the barriers to quality care by providing an essential community service, and preventing blindness,” he says.

Angel Eyecare, call 6108 3658 or visit angeleyecare.com.au