Was at the launch for this at the weekend, don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before. It’s a new privately funded project to create a dedicated centre for epilepsy for the first time in Ireland – one that will see public and private patients seen on the basis of need, not ability to pay…
http://www.nationalepilepsycentre.ie/
It was Brainwave‘s annual conference on Saturday too, shame to see that health correspondents still don’t know the terminology…
In case you don’t know (and why should you, you’re not a health writer!) epileptic went out with the dodo, it’s our equivalent of the N word…
5 thoughts on “A Busy Weekend…”
I’m ashamed to say I didn’t actually know that sorry but its good to know now. Hope the event went well Rick 🙂
I”ve read this post 4 times but i still dont quite understand it…. are you saying that people that write about epilepsy dont know what to call it? or that the word itself is no longer being used by people that live with this disorder? and if the word is no longer used, what is being used in its stead? i really want to understand this. thanks.
in fariness, the sub editor wrote the headline not the reporter; the copy from the health writer doesnt use that word as far as i can see – text is fairly small though.
Sub-ed Adrian, point taken…
Donna it’s all of those things. We just say someone has epilepsy these days, not that they’re “an epileptic”.
I couldn’t agree more – I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve chuntered about the description “an epileptic”. Hopefully people will come to realise over time that you don’t have to be defined by a condition!
Comments are closed.