May 2008 - Epilepsy Australia

Providing epilepsy services to a region covering almost 2.5 million square kilometres– unimaginable? … not for Mark Francis, Services Manager for The Epilepsy Centreof South Australia and The Northern Territory. For this is his ‘office’ and the isolatedcommunities he assists, his ‘clients’.Epilepsy Awareness Programassisting rural and remote communitiesThe Epilepsy Awareness Programhas been a major focus for TheEpilepsy Centre.The aim of the project is to providequality services for people with epilepsy,their families and the communitythroughout regional South Australia andThe Northen Territory.The State of South Australia covers anarea of 1,043,514 sq. km. so as you canimagine many miles have been coveredalong highways and unsealed dustyroads since this program began.Just to give you an idea of thedistances covered since the programbegan – Coober Pedy to the north isapproximately 835 kms, west to Cedunais around 770 kms, the most southernregion of Mt Gambier lies 435 kms fomAdelaide and to the east it is 245 kms toRenmark. And this is only one way! Areliable vehicle is essential and we weredelighted when Community Benfit SAfunded the purchase of a vehicle thatcould handle the many road conditionsone encounters on these trips.Many rural and remote areas havebeen visited and assistance has beenprovided to indigenous communities,school communities, rural supportgroups, nuring and medical staff in ruralhospitals and nursing homes, hospitals,child care centre, GP clinics, libraries,field days and workplaces.The Epilepsy Awareness Programprovides these communities with acomprehensive range of services.Assistance varies from providing generalepilepsy education, teacher training,medical staff training, formulating careplans, referring clients to health andwelfare agencies, counselling, advocacyand support.The results of this program aretangible. There is now greater awarenessand knowledge about epilepsy in allthe communities and the provision ofnew support groups and counsellingservices for those people living withepilepsy in such remote locationshave had a marked effect on theirself esteem and confidence. We havealso seen improvement in the healthand independence of people livingwith epilepsy in these communities.The program has gone a long way indemystifiying epilepsy, particularly inindigenous communities.To date, twenty one schools haveparticipated in the program. Thisexpansion of our services for schoolsin regional areas has resulted in schoolcommunities becoming ‘EpilepsyAware’. But our work here has onlybegan as there are over 310 schools yetto be visited in rural areas.Similarly, the expanded service is wellregarded by regional medical providersas the provision of current informationon epilepsy, seizure recognition andmedications has greatly increased theirepilepsy knowledge.In the Northern Territory, we havebegun to mirror our services offeredin rural and remote SA. So far, wehave provided support, training andinformation services to areas such asTennant Creek, Jabiru, Humpty Doo,Katherine and Pine Creek. We haveestablished relationships with a numberof Aboriginal Health Centres and havepartnered with other Disability andHealth Support Agencies to deliverservices collaboratively throughout theNorthern TerritoryAs part of our commitment to ruraland remote communities, we are aboutto embark on an exciting project toconnect people in rural and remoteareas to the Epilepsy Centre via VideoLink up. We plan to pilot the project inMt Gambier in the South East of SouthAustralia. This project will enablesupport groups to have access to ourfacilitators via video link as well asenabling our workshops to be streamedlive giving participants in rural areas theability to interact with the speakers andother participants. Our plan is to extendthis service throughout South Australiaand The Northern Territory.The Epilepsy Centre provides supportto people living with epilepsy and theirfamilies and the community throughoutregions that cover nearly 2.5 millionsquare kilometres which is why thisproject is so important for us to continueto deliver vital support services to ruraland remote communities.10,000 people assisted in rural areas ...• 1360 students and over 100 education staff across 21 schools in rural areas• Education was provided to 200 nursing and medical staff in rural hospitals and nursing homes• Delivered over 5000 pamphlets to hospitals, schools, child care centres, GP clinics and libraries etc• Support groups set up in Mt Gambier and Pt Lincoln with more planned for Whyalla, Naracoorte and Pt Pirie• Provided community education / information to over 1000 people through field days, general information sessions and workplacesTHE EPILEPSY REPORT MAY 2008 25