Services Provided Through Our Affiliate Network

Parent and Family Networks

These are local networks of parents of children with seizure disorders, working together with Foundation staff and volunteers to lend a helping hand and a sympathetic ear to other parents dealing with epilepsy in a child. This program is active in 45 local Epilepsy Foundations.

Parent, Adult and Teenage Support Groups

The design of each Foundation support group may vary slightly from location to location, depending on the preferences of the local community. Some groups prefer a structured program of formal meetings, with outside speakers; others are designed to be informal get-togethers for each group to meet others, share experiences and grow together. Whatever the design, the goal is the same: to help people with epilepsy and their families.

J. Kiffin Penry Travel Assistance Program

When people with seizures need specialized care, it may not be available in the local area. Travel expenses for individuals and families may sometimes be a barrier to such care, especially when other medical expenses mount up. The Epilepsy Foundation offers a limited number of travel assistance grants, up to $1,500 each, for people who must travel for specialized epilepsy care or testing.

Residential/Independent Living Services

When seizures are very frequent and are hard to control, or when memory and related problems add to epilepsy's burden, people may need help with daily living.

Some Epilepsy Foundations have secured state funding to offer a variety of housing-related programs to help people live as independently as possible.

These may include sponsorship of one or more group residences, individual help with budgeting, apartment location, marketing and other daily living tasks, and independent placement for people who previously lived in an institutional setting.

Employment Assistance

Just about every poll or survey of adults living with seizure disorders has shown that finding and keeping a job is the number one problem they face. A 1999 study (Report to the Nation) shows large unemployment and underemployment (working at a job below your qualifications) among adults with epilepsy. Even people whose seizures are reliably controlled are 25 percent less likely to have found a job than the general population.

Employment assistance is offered by the Epilepsy Foundation in a variety of ways -- through job search training, job development, job clubs, employer recruitment and follow-up services after a job has been secured.

Respite Care

While many people with epilepsy can get reliable control of seizures, children and adults with Lennox Gastaut Syndrome and other hard to control forms of epilepsy have frequent and debilitating seizures.

For their families, each day brings challenges, uncertainty and stress along with the satisfaction of caring for a deeply loved member of the family. Yet even the most devoted of families need some time for themselves.

Local Epilepsy Foundations who have secured special funding for this purpose provide expert care for an agreed upon period of time while the family regains its energy. There is an online affiliate lookup tool.