Be Aware and Be Alert!

The inequities of health care experienced by African-Americans due to socio-political and economic factors create barriers to medical attention.  These are the same African-Americans who are more likely to develop epilepsy over a lifetime (called lifetime prevalence) than white Americans. 637,000 African-Americans have been told by a physician or health care professional that they had epilepsy or a seizure disorder. Yet there remains a lack of knowledge and understanding about epilepsy and its related conditions among minority populations. African-Americans face four major obstacles to care: limited financial resources, lack of knowledge about epilepsy, poor patient-provider communication, and lack of social support.  Lack of knowledge and prevalence of misinformation about epilepsy in the African-American community compounded by poor communication with physicians, contribute to the social stigma felt by these patients.  Nearly 375,000 African-Americans are currently living with Epilepsy. There will be 150,000 new diagnoses this year alone. Moreover, 1 in 26 African-Americans will develop epilepsy at some point in their lifetime; and it's the 4th most common neurological disease affecting people of all ages.  So, tonight we will discuss the impact of Epilepsy on the African-American community during this National Epilepsy Awareness Month.  Our guest tonigh are Veronica Crowe, Manager of Foundation Relations and Epilepsy survivor of 25yrs and Dr. Steven Owens, MPH, MA, Vice President of Programs and Services at the Epilepsy Foundation.