Equal chances for support on children and adults with epilepsy and their families

The extensive experience of The Association of Parents of Children with Epilepsy /APCE/ of supporting children, adolescents and adults with epilepsy and their families, identifies the formation of social inclusion skills and personal initiative as a major problem. The day-to-day difficulties and the lack of adequate support for this target group forms patterns of behavior related to financial and domestic co-ordination in the families. The APCE’s studies have concluded that this sets a strong dependence to their families, especially children earliest childhood, which creates additional difficulties in their individual development and active participation in public life. There is a lack of motivation for continuing education, their inability to cope independently in an integrated environment, and consequently their encapsulation in a closed society with low social status. Through this project, The APCE offers an innovative, comprehensive model to improve the quality of life of children with epilepsy by establishing an effective cooperative mechanism with stakeholders. For this purpose, there will be provided Individual and group consultations for identifying children’s individual needs, stimulating informed decision-making, personality shaping and services for supported employment. The project meets the needs of The APCE and does not doubles initiatives. The project focuses on three key needs - the need for: social and health services for children and adults with epilepsy and their families; specialized service for supported employment due to specific problems such as lack of self-esteem, working habits, insufficient qualification and experience, and others; thirdly, a change in the negative public attitudes, especially those of employers and the persons themselves in terms of their work potential. With the completion of this project, some of the structures - the creation and functioning will be "available", active and able to continue their implementation.

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