Report on Services

Through the national office and its 54 local affiliates, the Epilepsy Foundation provides a number of critical services to people with epilepsy and their families, including information, educational conferences, health care provider training and advocacy.

H.O.P.E. Mentoring Program

Learn more about the H.O.P.E. Mentoring Program

The H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People with Epilepsy) Mentoring Program uses one of the most powerful resources to help educate people about epilepsy – people with epilepsy and their families, who are recruited to give educational presentations. In an effort to expand the H.O.P.E. Mentoring Program's reach and brand in 2005, the Foundation selected three affiliates to host one-day conferences, "A Day of H.O.P.E." For People with Epilepsy and Their Families.

The "Day of H.O.P.E." conferences provided people with epilepsy and their families with the opportunity to meet others coping with similar issues and to gather important information about epilepsy, treatment options, self-management and coping. Families tell the Foundation what they need most following an epilepsy diagnosis, and the subsequent ups and downs of living with the condition, is the support of other families similarly affected.

Each of the three April 2005 "Day of H.O.P.E." conferences were tailored to meet the needs of the local population. The Epilepsy Foundation of Idaho focused on the rural population in Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana and Utah. The Epilepsy Foundation of Kentuckiana's conference had three tracks for children with epilepsy, parents of children with epilepsy and adults with epilepsy. The Epilepsy Foundation of Central & South Texas targeted the underserved Hispanic population in the San Antonio area and featured presentations in English and Spanish.

CDC Cooperative Agreement

Many Foundation affiliates took part in the Foundation's partnership with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to implement programs and strategies that educate, inform and support students with epilepsy. One such program is Seizures and You: Take Charge of the Facts, which reached 20,000 teens across the country in 2005 through 34 affiliates. Eight affiliates are replicating four Promising Strategies programs: P.E.E.R L.I.N.E., medical interpreters training, outreach to underserved populations and e-learning training for healthcare providers. Additionally, 40 affiliates worked with their respective state public health departments to have epilepsy-related questions inserted into the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey; 19 states accepted at least one of five questions that will help measure prevalence of epilepsy and key health-related behaviors.

Women & Epilepsy

Learn more about the Women and Epilepsy Initiative

Women with epilepsy and their families are impacted by a number of specific issues, which were addressed in 2005 with a series of one-day Women & Epilepsy educational forums. These events helped to educate consumers on the challenges facing women with epilepsy and to provide those women with a chance to meet others dealing with similar issues, as well as critical information relating to healthcare, education and family support. Six affiliates were awarded grants to conduct Women & Epilepsy educational forms: Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota; Epilepsy Foundation of Rochester-Syracuse-Binghamton; Epilepsy Foundation of Southeast Texas; Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut; Epilepsy Foundation of Hawaii; and Epilepsy Foundation of Louisiana. Attendees reacted positively to the events, and in many cases felt inspired afterward, as these comments made by participants in the Minnesota forum demonstrate:

"We were able to make a possible life changing appointment. Thank you!! Thank you!!"

"Thank you for all your work in putting on this conference! It has been a wonderful experience to network with other women who have epilepsy. We actually laughed about the same seizures we had in common and how we first responded to them."

Additionally, the Foundation's 2005 "Ask the Expert" events featured two experts answering questions relating to the use of antiepileptic medications and pregnancy. The first event focused generally on epilepsy and pregnancy and featured Mark Yerby, M.D.,  Associate Clinical Professor of OB/GYN, Neurology and Public Health and Preventative Medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University. The second event, "The Use of Antiepileptic Drugs During Pregnancy," featured Christine O'Dell, RN, MSN from the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at the Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y.

National Epilepsy Library

The National Epilepsy Library houses more than 1,200 books and monographs as a one-stop resource for the latest literature on epilepsy and seizure disorders. In 2005, the library partnered with the journal Epilepsy & Behavior to make select articles available in their entirety, free of charge.