1:30min
By Rhiannon Riches
Assistant Editor
Optometry South Australia is continuing its pioneering congress program with an educational stream dedicated to the art of dispensing.
Introduced for the first time at SA Blue Sky Congress last year, the success of the educational stream for optical dispensers and front-of-house optical staff has ensured world class speakers and leaders in optical dispensing techniques will again be giving presentations.
Speakers this year include Dr David Wilson, Steve Daras, Grant Hannaford, David Welch and Gary Edwards.
Dispensing has been deregulated as a profession in Australia but tertiary institutions including RMIT continue to offer courses.
The SA Blue Sky Congress stream for dispensers caters for those with and without tertiary qualifications.
Dr Wilson ran the optical dispensing course for the Open Training and Education Network (OTEN) for more than 20 years. He has written two books on optical dispensing, Practical Optical Dispensing and Practical Optical Workshop, and is a former president of the International Opticians Association.
Dr Wilson will be delivering two lectures at the congress; the first on prismatic corrections, effects and coatings; and the second on Aniseikonia-Iseikonics: what does this mean? He will also present a workshop on Predictive dispensing: how thick are these lenses going to be?
Fellow educator Mr Daras has been teaching at TAFE in New South Wales for several years. He also writes and reviews course resources. He will be speaking about children’s vision and correct frame selection.
Mr Daras will host four workshops: frame adjustments and repairs, computerised measurement systems, predicting final spectacle performance, and best practice for facial measurements.
Mr Hannaford is a qualified optical dispenser and vice president of the Australasian Dispensing Opticians Association. He and his wife optometrist Thao Hannaford run their own independent practice in Bowral, NSW. Mr Hannaford will be speaking about aberrations; and running workshops on trouble shooting with multifocal lenses, and understanding visual acuity.
The registration fee to attend the SA Blue Sky Congress Optical Dispenser stream is $245.
Register your practice staff at www.optometry.org.au/sa/.