Safety in epilepsy: Do you know what a Seizure Action Plan is and why you should have one? Read on to learn more.
An important way to keep safe when living with epilepsy is to make sure you have a Seizure Action Plan. This type of plan is useful no matter the age of the patient to ensure that witnesses know what is going on (an epileptic seizure), what to do to help and what not to do. This is beneficial to everyone involved.
Some of the usual and basic items you need to include in a seizure action plan are:
* Name of person with epilepsy, age and diagnosis (specific seizure disorder, including psychogenic non-epileptic seizures)
* Emergency contact information
* Neurologist contact information
* Height and weight
* Brief description of what the typical seizures look like
* Medications and doses
* Drug allergies
* Brief explanation of what witnesses can do to help the person during the seizure (very important: what NOT to do during a seizure, for example, put something in the person's mouth)
We recommend going to this excellent website to learn more about Seizure Action Plans for school, work, and different ages: https://seizureactionplans.org/
This is a sample Seizure Action Plan for children provided by the Epilepsy Foundation of America: https://www.epilepsy.com/sites/core/files/atoms/files/GENERAL%20Seizure%20Action%20Plan%202020-April7_FILLABLE.pdf
