Community Corner: TIME for Epilepsy Self-Management

Programs to help people with epilepsy manage their health continue to grow! Everyone benefits from epilepsy-specific self-management education. This type of education includes ways to:

• Recognize and track seizures
• Find triggers and modify your lifestyle as needed
• Stay safe
• Use proper seizure first aid
• Manage seizure medicines safely
• Know how to get the right care at the right time
• Talk about epilepsy
• And much more

Yet, when someone has other health needs, information and strategies to help may be more difficult to find. Tailored approaches, peer support, and linking with community resources are critical.

The Epilepsy Foundation, through our cooperative grant with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and many other epilepsy and health organizations have been working to increase awareness about the importance of epilepsy self-management. Efforts are underway to connect the mental health community with Epilepsy Foundation local offices and epilepsy centers to offer these programs.

A New Epilepsy Self-Management Program

The TIME (Targeted Self-Management for Epilepsy and Mental Illness) Program, funded by the CDC, helps people with epilepsy learn ways to manage their epilepsy and emotional health issues (for example, depression, stress, and other psychological problems). The program is delivered in a group format over 10 to 12 weeks. It is led by a nurse educator and peer educator. Research on how the program affects a person’s epilepsy and mental health shows promising results. Recent work in the community suggests great potential for wider use.

To learn more about the TIME program and related programs for epilepsy self-management:

• Join a Community Event on June 27, 2018, in Cleveland to hear about this project and initial results.
  • TIME Community Report Invitation from Epilepsy Association.pdf
  • Call (216) 579-1330 or email csaunier@epilepsyinfo.org for more information.
• Download a fact sheet about TIME

The TIME program was done by staff from the Case Western Reserve University Managing Epilepsy Well (MEW) Network and the Epilepsy Association of Cleveland. The roll out of the program was supported by the Alcohol Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Cuyahoga County in Ohio.

Stay tuned for more information about epilepsy self-management programs for you and your loved ones.

Best wishes,

Patty Osborne Shafer RN, MN