Fiducia TogetherGlaucoma
Pressure damaging the optic nerve. Painless, silent, and the sight it takes never comes back.
Important: This page is general information, not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. If you are worried about your health or someone else's, speak to a GP, pharmacist, or call 111. In an emergency, call 999.
What it is
Glaucoma is the reason free eye tests exist. It steals peripheral vision so gradually that the brain fills in the gaps, and people routinely lose a substantial share of their visual field before noticing anything at all.
The usual mechanism is raised pressure inside the eye damaging the optic nerve. Around 700,000 people in the UK have it, and a large number do not yet know.
The damage is permanent. Treatment stops it getting worse and cannot restore what has gone, which is the whole argument for testing rather than waiting for symptoms.
Signs you might notice
Usually nothing, for years. That is the point.
Later: patchy blind spots at the edges, difficulty in dim light, bumping into things on one side.
Acute angle-closure glaucoma is the exception and is an emergency: sudden severe eye pain, a red eye, blurred vision, haloes around lights, nausea. Go to A and E the same day.
How it can affect day-to-day life
Eye drops are the treatment, and adherence is poor for an entirely understandable reason: they treat a condition with no symptoms, so stopping produces no immediate consequence. By the time there is one, sight has gone.
Technique matters as much as remembering. A great many people miss the eye entirely, or wash the drop straight out by blinking.
Vision loss at the edges affects driving, falls and confidence long before it affects reading.
Supporting someone well
Put the drops on the same routine as something already reliable: teeth, or a meal. A missed drop is a permanent loss, spread thin.
Check the technique. Head back, pull the lower lid down, one drop into the pocket, close the eye gently for a minute and press the inner corner. Do not blink hard.
Leave five minutes between different drops.
Keep the eye tests going, every year or as advised, for the person and for their relatives. Having a close relative with glaucoma raises risk enough that free NHS tests apply from age 40.
In a service, record eye drops on the medication round like any other prescribed medicine, not as a personal care task. Fiducia Together does that by default, which is the difference between drops that are given and drops that are assumed.
Where to get help
Any high street optometrist tests for glaucoma. NHS tests are free for over-60s, and for over-40s with a close relative who has it.
Glaucoma UK run a helpline and produce reminders and drop aids.
Sudden eye pain with visual change is an emergency.
Tools we make that might help
These are our own products. We have put them here because they do something specific for this condition, not because every page needs a list.
Fiducia Together
Eye drops on the medication round rather than filed as personal care, so they are given and recorded.
Where to read more
Last reviewed 2026-08-28 by Fiducia Together · Next review due 2027-08-28
Important: This page is general information, not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. If you are worried about your health or someone else's, speak to a GP, pharmacist, or call 111. In an emergency, call 999.