Who are we?

It is estimated that there are more than 4,000 people who have epilepsy in the Maltese Islands. The Caritas Malta Epilepsy Association (CMEA) was set up by voluntary workers in 1996 and now lists almost 400 members. In May 2001 the Association was accepted as a Full Member of the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE). The statute of the association can be found HERE.

The present CMEA committee members are:

Mr. Frank Portelli President

Dr. Anna Micallef Vice President

Ms. Caroline Attard Treasurer

Ms. Robin Pinkston Hon Secretary

Mr. Emmanuel (Noel Mercieca) Public Relations

Ms. Adriana Caruana Soler Facebook & Youths

Mr. Kevin Attard Member

Prof. Janet Mifsud Advisor

What do we do?

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 regularly organise free training courses for teachers, social workers, police recruits and other entities which require our services. We endeavour to send representatives of our association to international conferences to gain more insight about epilepsy and its’ management and meet other organisations in order to broaden our knowledge and experiences

CMEA has also coordinated an EU Erasmus + project called EPIPICTO www.epipicto.eu – a pictorial guide for persons with epilepsy. The project will contribute to the social inclusion of these persons by using a pictorial guide to overcome language barriers and literacy issues. This will improve their access to social, health, education and employment services and help them to better manage their epilepsy. And it will result in a better quality of life for these persons. The project brings together five European epilepsy organisations from Austria, Germany, Malta, the Netherlands and Scotland

What is our Vision?

Our Vision:

A better life for people with epilepsy

Our Goals:

to make Malta epilepsy aware
to improve healthcare for people with epilepsy
to offer practical support to people with epilepsy at key points of need

Our Strategic Tools:

Education
Training
Communication
Commitment

Our Action Plan:

These are ambitious yet realistic long-term goals. To begin to deliver on them we have drawn up a 3 year action plan with practical measures and activities. We will monitor our progress against the plan, and on the impact of some key activities. We are determined to ensure that our plan is a living document. It will be revised and updated as we progress on our journey. 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.