Chartered Health Psychologist
Sustainable Behaviour Researcher, Leeds Beckett University
United Kingdom
Professor Fylan is a Chartered Health Psychologist who specialises in understanding behaviour and developing and evaluating interventions to change behaviour. Her research focuses on behaviour change to create sustainable communities, which involves how people use healthcare systems and how they behave in the built environment. Her eyecare research explores how people respond to their eye conditions and how to best communicate with them. She has undertaken many research projects on presbyopia, including how people make decisions about lenses, and how to improve communication between eyecare professionals and patients. She has published widely, including on driving and spectacle wear, people’s beliefs, communication about and experiences of cataract surgery, and the mental health of optometrists. She leads Sustainable Behaviour research at Leeds Beckett University and works on a wide range of health-related projects at Brainbox Research for a range of clients including government, local authorities, charities and commercial organisations.
The Psychology of the Presbyope
Becoming presbyope can be a difficult time. Visual changes can lead to frustration or anxiety and it is often the first sign that people have that they are ageing. In a world where people expect technology to solve their problems, becoming presbyopic – and their inability to prevent it – can make them feel helpless. They may also be embarrassed about their difficulties, and so avoid situations in which this would be apparent. Lack of awareness can lead to a delay before people seek help from an eyecare practitioner. However, once they seek help they are normally ready to accept advice about how best to solve the visual problems they are experiencing. Despite this, practitioners can feel nervous about raising options with new presbyopes for several reasons, including them being reluctant to have the “getting old” conversation, them anticipating people rejecting higher priced progressive lenses, and being nervous of recommending a lens that they fear people may struggle to adapt to. This presentation will explore how to communicate effectively with presbyopes.
Client Attitudes to Purchasing Spectacles
Many clients in optometry practice have reported that they don’t receive sufficient information from practitioners to make informed lens purchasing decisions. Furthermore, there is a discrepancy between client and practitioner perceptions of purchasing decisions. Practitioners often overestimate the importance of price to clients and underestimate the importance of their own recommendations. Practitioners can assume that offering premium options will alienate clients, while clients do not want to feel that their choice is constrained by practitioners’ perceptions of their willingness to pay. However, they are more likely to choose premium options when benefits and compromises are related to the visual difficulties they are experiencing. In order to increase the salience of recommendations, practitioners need to understand clients’ experiences of their vision, and communicate how lenses could increase their quality of life. This presentation will explore how to apply behaviour change techniques to help clients make informed decisions about lens options.