People with epilepsy : report of a joint sub-committee of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee on the Health and Welfare of Handicapped Persons.
- Great Britain. Standing Medical Advisory Committee
- Date:
- 1969
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: People with epilepsy : report of a joint sub-committee of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee on the Health and Welfare of Handicapped Persons. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![EMPLOYMENT 142. For people with epilepsy, as for most of the disabled, useful occupation is of paramount importance. Now that gainful employment is customary for all men, for single and widowed women, and often for married women, it deter- mines the way of life, social and financial status, and the rdle in society; and it is a source of personal satisfaction, of social companionship, of esteem, of discipline and of purpose. Consequently, although we were not concerned directly with the employment services, we found that work was at the centre of the vicious circle of frustration for some people with epilepsy. Because of their condition they were either unable to find a job or had to accept work which did not use their full intellectual powers or other capacities. This caused frustration, which in turn aggravated the disability and thus tended to confirm their real or supposed unfitness for the desired employment. The situation of the person with epilepsy is particular poignant because, for most of the time, his capacity for work may be no different from that of anyone else and the restrictions on his employment are often on account merely of the possibility of his having a seizure. 143. The Department of Employment and Productivity is responsible for the services for vocational advice, training, industrial rehabilitation, and placement in sheltered or open employment. Comments on the services themselves in the evidence we have received have been brought to the attention of the Depart- ment. 144, Epilepsy is a disabling condition to which special attention has been given by the employment services. People suffering from it may register as disabled persons under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Acts, 1944 and 1958, so long as they satisfy the conditions of eligibility. The two principal conditions are that an applicant (i) must be substantially handicapped on account of injury, disease or congenital deformity in obtaining or keeping employment or work on his own account suited to his age, qualifications and experience, and that the disable- ment is likely to last for 12 months or more; and (ii) desires to engage in some form of remunerative employment or work on his own account, and that he has a reasonable prospect of obtaining and keeping some form of such employ- ment or work on his own account. Each year some 500 people with epilepsy enter industrial rehabilitation units of the Department of Employment and Product- ivity; and training in a skilled occupation under the Department’s vocational training scheme is also available to suitable applicants. Some of these courses are provided at residential establishments. People with epilepsy who are on the register of disabled persons and are so severely disabled as to be unlikely to obtain ordinary employment may be considered for training or work under sheltered conditions in a Remploy factory or other sheltered workshop. 145. Although it has been estimated that there are at least 91,000 people with epilepsy in the working population, only about 19,000 registered disabled persons 4]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32169899_0047.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
