Our epilepsy and seizures community of patients, family, friends and doctors has been busy!
Patients, family members, friends, doctors, office managers, secretaries and nurses have all been extra-busy these last few months raising epilepsy awareness through 1) Stroll for Epilepsy led by team captain, Shelby Santucci and 2) Dr. Kirsty Bortnik became an American Psychological Association-United Nations (APA-UN) Representative. Dr. Lorna Myers also broke a record of sorts. Her book: "Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: A Guide" sold over 3000 print copies (not including Kindle and copies sold at publisher's cost to hospitals and foundations) since published in 2014.
Shelby Santucci proudly led Team Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group on a Stroll for Epilepsy that benefits the wonderful Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern NY. She strolled with her team on May 5th in Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, NY. Congratulations for a job well done-she raised over $1000!
Last year, one of NEREG's neuropsychologists, Kirsty Bortnik, Ph.D. became an American Psychological Association-United Nations (APA-UN) Representative. American Psychological Association (APA)-appointed representatives work within the NGO community at the U.N. headquarters in New York. Based on APA advocacy goals and priorities, APA representatives collaborate with other NGO representatives and APA offices and governance to identify issues, organize programs and draft statements that bring psychological science and a psychological perspective to bear on global policies and programs. Representatives also foster dialogue and information exchange between psychologists and APA and U.N. diplomats and representatives of U.N. agencies, and serve as APA's conduit for information about the United Nations.
As part of her work as an APA-UN Representative she is directly involved in supervision of UN interns (graduate students in Psychology), organization of the annual "Psychology Day" at the United Nations, and authoring of quarterly columns in the Psychology International journal. The following are a few of the titles of articles she has co-authored:
"World AIDS Day -- Where are we on our way to zero?" (http://www.apa.org/international/pi/2018/01/aids-day.aspx)
"The March for Science, the human right to science, and the benefits of psychological science" (http://www.apa.org/international/pi/2017/06/march-for-science.aspx)
Dr. Eric Segal educated those who called in to the Epilepsy Foundation of New Jersey webinar in May. Title of the webinar: Hot topics in epilepsy.
Dr. Lorna Myers' book, Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: A Guide broke a record in sales this past month. The print version of the book has now sold over 3000 copies since it published in 2014. This doesn't include kindle sales or bulk orders that come in from hospitals around the country (these hospitals hand out the book to patients upon communicating the diagnosis to them). Very important to note that ALL royalties from the book are donated by the author to the Epilepsy Free not-for-profit. This helps support the scholarships the foundation grants to children and adults who have seizures. Scholarships are for summer camp and continuing adult education (college and trade schools). For more information, go here: www.epilepsyfree.com.
