The Caritas Malta Epilepsy Association (VO/1396)

Caritas Malta Epilepsy Association

(VO/1396)

Who is CMEA?

Welcome to the main page of Caritas Malta Epilepsy Association. The association is proud of its achievements since it was established in 1996. We have established ourselves as the voice for people with epilepsy in Malta & Gozo.

It is estimated that there are more than 5000 people suffering from epilepsy in the Maltese Islands. The Caritas Malta Epilepsy Association (CMEA) was set up by voluntary workers in 1996 and now lists almost 300 members. In May 2001 the Association was accepted as a Full Member of the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE).

The Association is for persons with Epilepsy and their families and carers. It aims to promote education and local awareness about epilepsy, especially because of the stigma suffered by people with this condition in society particularly in employment. Our campaign is aimed at improving health care services, treatment and social acceptance of epilepsy, as a serious yet treatable brain disorder. Raising public and professional awareness and dispelling myths about epilepsy is one of our key objectives. Over the past years our promotional and educational campaign of the various aspects of epilepsy, includes talks on T.V. and radio, lectures at schools and parishes, articles in the local papers, a production of a video/DVD on epilepsy in Maltese and distribution of flyers translated into Maltese. Patient diaries and patient identity cards were also launched specifically for the use of those having epilepsy. This campaign is part of a worldwide campaign called Epilepsy Out of The Shadows by IBE, ILAE and WHO.

Read the statute of the association.

What Do We Do?

To date we have held various national conferences as can be seen on the international and national meetings and conferences page https://caritasmalta.org/cmea/cmea-conferences/. An interactive meeting held with general practitioners in alliance with the College of Family Doctors was also very fruitful and it was felt that this initiative will enhance the treatment and the management of people with epilepsy even further. In fact this led to our fourth national conference held in February 2008: “Epilepsy – A Multidisciplinary Approach”. In 2010 the conference took on a general overview of the condition and it was entitled “What is Epilepsy? Improving our Knowledge”. Seeing that stigma is still a very important issue especially with regards to employment, the 2012 conference delft into the problems faced by people with epilepsy when they are looking for work. The title for the conference is “Epilepsy – How do we overcome stigma? The 2024 conference obtained funding from the Ministry of Inclusion and Voluntary Sector, Small Initiatives Support Schema and Malta Council for Voluntary sector and considered Patient Public Involvement in Epilepsy.

We were successful in attracting IBE to host their biannual conference i.e. the 9th European Conference in Malta which was held in March 2004 entitled “Epilepsy and Society – Focus on Change. In 2004 CMEA also co-ordinated an EU funded Grundvig project together with Germany and Hungary the aim of which is to create a curriculum with regards Epilepsy for Professionals Allied to Medicine. Between 2012 -2104 CMEA also took part in a Leonardo da Vinci EU project MOTION :The Promotion of a Good Transition of Disabled Young Persons from School to the World of Work and Adult Life with partners from Turkey and Germany. We also coordinated the Erasmus+ project Epipicto: pictorial guide for adults with epilepsy www.epipicto.eu between 2015-2019.

Our activities also take us to various foundations, schools, day centres and other entities wherein we give talks / discussions / lectures with regards to epilepsy. All these talks and training sessions are given free of charge.

We endeavour to send representatives of our association to various international seminars and conferences in order to gain more insight about epilepsy and its’ management and meet other organization to broaden our knowledge and experiences.

Meetings for members are held every two months (see activities section for exact dates). During these meetings, professionals in different areas are invited to give talks about their respective subjects. Sometimes these meetings are a means of experience sharing and support seeking. All that is shared during these meetings is treated with the strictest respect and everyone pledges to uphold confidentiality.

Our Action Plan

The Association is for persons with epilepsy and their families. It aims to promote education and local awareness about epilepsy, especially because of the stigma suffered by people with this condition in society, particularly in employment. Our campaign is aimed at improving health care services, treatment and social acceptance of epilepsy, as a serious yet treatable brain disorder. Raising public and professional awareness and dispelling myths about epilepsy is one of our key objectives through media, talks, publications, epilepsy toolkits; information leaflets in English and Maltese and epilepsy diaries and ID cards. To date, we have held various national conferences as can be seen on the Conferences page. We also issue a regular newsletter.

CMEA is a volunteer based organisation. As volunteers we work as a team to achieve the vision of a better life for people with epilepsy. We do this with a sense of commitment and support for each other.

How can you join us?

CMEA has a mailing list where we send out information about meetings, newsletters, and other useful information. If you wish to subscribe to our mailing list just send a blank e-mail with the word Subscribe in the subject field to cmeamailinglist@gmail.com. Your e-mail address will be kept confidential and will not be used for any other purpose.

This e-mail address account is not monitored, e-mails sent to this address will not be read or replied to.