title: Stand up for epilepsy San Diego photo-shoot: a personal odyssey.
abstract: Stigma towards epilepsy results in barriers to social integration, education, employment, and marriage, with increased divorce rates. There is a societal need to realise that many persons with epilepsy (PWE) lead normal lives and can be highly educated with effective employment. Integration of PWE into sports is therapeutic both for PWE (decreased seizure frequency, decreased comorbid conditions, and increased psychosocial skills) and society. Stand Up For Epilepsy (SUFE), overseen by the ILAE Task Force on Sports and Epilepsy, is an international project in which action photographs with PWE were taken as a means to destigmatise epilepsy. This autobiographical narrative describes how SUFE initiated effective athlete-PWE interactions with positive PWE, athlete, and parent responses. Expansion of SUFE is recommended to further destigmatise epilepsy. Participation in SUFE can serve as a personal odyssey for PWE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. kaufmakr@umdnj.edu
authors.forename: Kenneth R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.forename: Nathaniel D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Kaufman
mesh_terms: D026683:Advisory Committees; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004827:Epilepsy; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D058992:Social Participation; D057545:Social Stigma; D013177:Sports
keywords: Olympic athlete; cultural competence; divorce; education; employment; epilepsy; marriage; social integration; sport; stigma