Our Young Epilepsy Programme is a series of specific events and group supports that we offer to young people living with the condition from the age of 8 to 24.
These groups include the following:
- Get ChARTY (8 -12-year-olds)
- Teen Time (13 – 17-year-olds)
- Young Adult Meetups (18 – 24-year-olds)
The idea behind these offerings is that as a child/young person gets older, they will have the option of moving on to a new group that will be specific to that general period of their life – and indeed, that they will form lasting connections with other young people with epilepsy, helping them recognise they are not alone.
We also offer Siblings Groups for siblings of children with epilepsy and have a dedicated resource in supporting young people with epilepsy via our Youth Resource Officer (YRO).
Details on all the above, and how to access the supports of our YRO, are included within this section of our website.
Through all these offerings, the overall goal is to make young people more aware of the importance of the self-management of their condition which should help improve their quality of life in the future. Ultimately through each of these offerings, what we want young people to recognise is that their condition is part of their life – but it does not have to define it.
In addition, by helping young people to be more open and comfortable with their condition from an early age, this should also help to increase awareness of epilepsy and reduce stigma in the future.
We are pleased to offer this programme to young people with epilepsy, which was a key aim of our current Strategic Plan 2022-2026 and we look forward to expanding on our offerings supporting young people with epilepsy in the future.