Hope for Paediatric Epilepsy – Community Film

Research

What is Epilepsy?

 Epilepsy is a neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent ‘episodes’ of

sensory disturbance, loss of consciousness, or convulsions, associated with
abnormal electrical activity in the brain.
 A seizure is caused by a sudden burst of excess electrical activity in the brain,
this causes a temporary disruption in the normal message passing through
brain cells. This disruption results in the brain’s messages becoming halted or
mixed up.
 The brain is responsible for all the functions of your body, so what you
experience during a seizure will depend on where in your brain the epileptic
activity begins and how widely and rapidly it spreads. For this reason, there
are many different types of seizure and each person will experience epilepsy
in a way that is unique to them.

Epileptic Triggers

Triggers are situations that can bring on a seizure in some people with epilepsy.
Some people’s seizures are brought on by certain situations. Triggers can differ from
person to person, but common triggers include tiredness and lack of sleep, stress,
alcohol, and not taking medication. For some people, if they know what triggers
their seizures, they may be able to avoid these triggers and so lessen the chances of
having a seizure.
Existing information on Hope for Paediatric Epilepsy:

Hope for Paediatric Epilepsy is a support group that is run by parents and Carolyn
Taylor, paediatric Epilepsy Specialist Nurse at Tameside general Hospital.

It's an informal meeting once a month for parent/carers of children and young
people who have epilepsy.

It gives opportunity to build relationships, share and gain knowledge from others
who may or had similar experiences to parents whose child suffers from epilepsy.

The charity started in 2009 and is still running today with meetings every week
between parent’s children and an Epilepsy Specialist Nurse. The charity run events
and fun days for the children to both raise money and also give them a happy
lifestyle in order to show that there’s more to life than their epilepsy and that they
can lead a normal life.

The charity offers different sources and ways to support those suffering with the
disorder and the families dealing with it.

The charity also offers a guide to

first aid seizure/Take Epilepsy
action video. The video
thoroughly explains the do’s and
don’ts in this particular situation.
Audience Research

We developed a questionnaire in order to understand whom we were targeting the

film towards. This also helped us produce a brief audience profile.

Q: Are you familiar with Epilepsy?

Over 60% of the people asked were familiar with what Epilepsy was and only 8%
wasn’t with the remainder aware of it.

Q: Have you ever been affected personally by Epilepsy?

The majority of the people asked were unaffected by epilepsy but a high percentage
were showing that 25% of the people who took the survey had in some way been
affected by the disorder.
Q: Do you know what Paediatric Epilepsy is?

A high percentage of people knew that Paediatric epilepsy affected children but there was
still a worrying amount of people who were completely unaware of it.

Q: Where do you live?

This question was asked to give us a good understanding of how many people in the
area were affected by epilepsy and according to the results all but one were in the
Manchester area.
Q: What is your occupation?

This question showed us that people from all walks of life are affected by the
disorder, from students to school teachers to cleaners.

Q: What is your age?

Again this was to help show how common it is for young people to be affected by
Epilepsy as over 50% of the people questioned were between the ages of 12 and 18.
Q: Do you have children?

This question was to see how many of the people actually had children and it was a
very low amount which shows that it's possible people are ignorant to the charity
due to a lack of understanding and empathy because they don’t have children
themselves.

Q: Would you get involved with an Epileptic type charity?

From this we can see that no one is against getting involved in a charity and 50%
definitely would though half of the people asked were unsure showing that we need
to raise awareness and help people to better understand what the charity is and
how they can help.
Q: How would you raise awareness for Paediatric Epilepsy?

For this question we aimed to get opinions of what people would do to help raise
awareness for the charity and if they had any ideas on how to help.
 Audience Profile
Hobbies – Music, film,
Gender – social media and
Male/Female socialising with friends.

Socio-economic
Age – 12-18 Grouping – E and D
(still lives at home
with
Occupation - parents/guardians, full
Student time student/Maybe
part time job.

Media Preferences – Ethnic Background - Any

Social Sexual Orientation - Any
Media/Networking
such as Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram

We are primarily looking towards individuals who want get into charities and
specifically the charity we are covering. Typically a younger person who is looking to
make a difference and donate to their first charity. 54% of people answered 12-18 as
their age, this shows us that we are looking at younger people as our primary
audience and older people who already donate to a charity as our secondary.
Reaching out to people of younger ages is really important as it will allow us to
ensure the charity will gain a new community of donors and supporters and
hopefully pave way for younger people to realise the importance of not just
donating to a charity, but the subject of that charity as well.

5 Facts about Epilepsy

 Epilepsy can affect anyone, at any age and from any walk of life.
 Every day in the UK, 87 people are diagnosed with some form of Epilepsy.
 Many people with Epilepsy are still discriminated against due to a serious lack
of understanding and ignorance towards the condition
 Many people who suffer from Epilepsy can take part in the same activities as
everyone else, with the help simple safety measures where appropriate.
 In the UK alone, over 600,000 or one in every 103 people suffer with
Epilepsy.