General Practitioners have an important role to play in supporting the healthcare needs of people living with a long-term condition such as epilepsy. However, we more than understand the pressure which is on GP services across the country.
With this in mind, Epilepsy Ireland and University College Cork - via the support of Sláintecare - aimed to further investigate the relationship between people with established epilepsy and their GPs.
Through interviews with people with epilepsy and GPs alike, several themes emerged. These included:
- GPs and people with epilepsy described a limited role for GPs in epilepsy care
- There were varying levels of engagement from people with epilepsy and their GP, and vice versa
- Limited epilepsy knowledge was cited as being a challenge for GPs working in family practices
Alongside the themes above, there was enthusiasm expressed by people and GPs alike to develop a patient held consultation guide for people with epilepsy, to help aid them with discussions about their condition with their GP; and equally, to help GPs to be aware of aspects of a person’s condition to be conscious of.
This guide is available to read and download at the end of this page.
We would encourage GPs to please make your patients with epilepsy aware of the guide and familiarise yourself with the contents of the guide to help aid your consultations with patients who are living with epilepsy.
In addition, as part of this project, we also developed the video below to help aid GPs knowledge of epilepsy within busy practices. The video is timestamped with various titles within it for ease of access for GPs working in busy practices.
We would like to thank our colleagues Prof Henry Smithson and Dr Cormac Sheehan from University College Cork for their support and assistance in developing these resources. This work is part of an ongoing research project where the consultation guide will be trialed by people with epilepsy. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact our Director of Services, Tara Smith by emailing tsmith@epilepsy.ie.
**If you are GP supporting a person with epilepsy, remember that our Local Community Resource Officers are there to provide information and support to people on their journeys with the condition. You can find details of your local Community Resource Officer by visiting the 'Our Local Service' section of the website. **