O Tas and O SA are responding to members’ needs with quality education and representation aimed at future-proofing the diverse profession of optometry.
O Tas
The Tasmanian Lifestyle Congress (TLC) website is now live and loaded with conference details as well as the online registration. This year the conference will be held in Hobart from Friday to Sunday, 24 – 26 August, and has been moved to the larger Wrest Point Hotel, five minutes away from Hobart CBD. Extensive delegate parking and a great choice of accommodation will be a major advantage. The conference dinner is being held at Wrest Point and is complementary with full registration. The contact lens breakfast is being held again on the Sunday morning. TLC is a great opportunity for delegates to receive their required CPD points in one event. There are many therapeutic points on offer as well.
it is imperative that we keep our fingers on the pulse of our membership to ensure we understand the pressures being felt
Our keynote speaker this year is Professor Alex Gentle, whose ongoing interest in ocular therapeutics education and optometric prescribing regulation led him to serve as chair of the Prescribing Practices Advisory Committee of the Optometrist’s Regulation Board of Victoria and as a member of the Scheduled Medicines Advisory Committee of the Optometry Board Australia. Prof. Gentle, who is currently the Associate Head of School (Teaching and Learning) at Deakin’s School of Medicine, will present at TLC on evidenced-based management of ocular allergy.
Additionally, we have a varied and interesting list of presentation topics, including: “headache classification and the role of optometry in diagnosing, treating and appropriate referral for headache”; “idiopathic intracranial hypertension – the optometrist’s role in diagnosis and management”; “myopia control and the role of low-dose atropine” and more. This is a great chance to hear from industry experts and speak with your colleagues.
Registration prices have been maintained at last year’s early bird pricing. For details visit: www.optometry.org.au/tas/tlc. We hope to see you at TLC.
O SA
The South Australian (SA) government is required by law to consult with Optometry SA, as the peak influential body for optometry and optometrists in the state, on key legislative and policy proposals relevant to our profession.
Consequently, if you want government to really listen to your point of view, it’s important to be a member. It is also therefore, critical that O SA speaks with an informed voice and represents each and everyone of our diverse membership fairly. This is no mean feat when the members we represent are so diverse in their needs, experiences and expectations.
As the optometry service and retail environment evolves, it is imperative that we keep our fingers on the pulse of our membership to ensure we understand the pressures being felt and how we can best support you now and in the future.
Our O SA Board membership aims to represent our broader membership, so that we have a ‘litmus test’ of what is important to our working mums and dads, practice owners, corporateemployed members and early career optometrists of various ages. We also use the data from the national member survey every couple of years.
However, we recognise members are time poor and often so busy getting on with life that they don’t have time to share their views with us. To head any frustrations off at the pass, we are currently making a consolidated effort to get out to members to hear what they think about the O SA Board’s amalgamation proposal, the services we offer and what they’d like to see more of, less of, etc.
Through until October, we are hosting a series of free member events (networking, CPD, social) across Adelaide and rural SA and will use the opportunity to hear what we need to hear from the horse’s mouth. If I haven’t already seen you, I look forward to doing so soon.