With over 45,000 people living with epilepsy in Ireland, people living with epilepsy must have access to improved specialist treatment and support within their region.
Why?
When a person is diagnosed with epilepsy, the ultimate outcome is for that person to become seizure free. Up to 70% of people with epilepsy can become seizure-free if the right treatment is identified for their individual epilepsy.
To meet the outcome of becoming seizure free, people with epilepsy need to have faster, easier and more regular access to specialist services such as epilepsy nurse specialists or epileptologists.
Unfortunately, due to the pressures on the public health system, often a person can be left waiting for a long time to access their specialist care. This can be due to several factors such as vacancies within epilepsy services or the need for expansion of existing services.
In addition, services within local communities to support people with epilepsy on their journey with the condition must be enhanced – this includes the need to enhance funding provided to organisations like Epilepsy Ireland in order to maintain and expand our services for people with epilepsy.
What will Epilepsy Ireland do?
In collaboration with healthcare professionals working within epilepsy services in Ireland, we will raise awareness of the challenges and pressures experienced by epilepsy services across the country. We will highlight the importance of these services to our service users and members, and we will advocate for new service developments and that current service levels be maintained. We will also advocate that relevant epilepsy-related HSE models of care and policies be implemented in full.
Alignment with World Health Organisation IGAP on epilepsy and other neurological conditions
This campaign aligns with Strategic Objective 2 within this plan, which Ireland has committed to implementing. The strategic objective in full states:
Provide effective, timely and responsive diagnosis, treatment and care
News Updates on this Issue
The below are some of the updates on this matter as it progressed and associated articles in the news section of our website and some associated press coverage where you can read more.