The Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods Seminar Series will continue with a presentation, titled “The Role of Self-Management in Managing Epilepsy and Reducing Complications.” Martha Sajatovic, professor of psychiatry and epidemiology and biostatistics, will present this installment of the series on Wednesday, March 11, from noon to 1:15 p.m. in BioEnterprise Building’s Ground Floor Conference Room.
Epilepsy affects approximately 2 million Americans and is associated with substantial disability, reduced quality of life, heavy stigma burden, and premature mortality due to disease-related and psychosocial factors. It is known that self-management approaches that empower individuals with a health condition can increase engagement in care, improve outcomes, and reduce complications such as hospitalization or emergency department visits.
Sajatovic’s project targets a historically hard-to-reach group of individuals with epilepsy—the seriously and persistently mentally ill—and refines an intervention originally developed for individuals with serious mental illness and comorbid diabetes. The experimental intervention (Targeted Self-Management for Epilepsy and Mental Illness/TIME) is a person-centered, holistic approach that takes advantage of existing strengths in patients, families, and community health entities. TIME is a practical and generalizable intervention suitable for implementation in specialty, primary care, or community settings and has the potential to reduce the unacceptably high morbidity and mortality seen in individuals challenged with epilepsy and mental health comorbidity. Future works will attempt to leverage the most salient elements of TIME (group interaction, Peer Educator modeling, Nurse Educator support) in a format that minimizes participant burden.
Parking is available and a light lunch will be served at the presentation.