Time, Safe, Stay! Be clear on how to respond to a seizure this International Epilepsy Day!

For this edition of Hospital Professionals News, Epilepsy Ireland Advocacy & Communications Manager, Paddy McGeoghegan updates us on the organisation’s plans for their biggest awareness-raising day of the year….

I am delighted to once again be writing in this edition of Hospital Professional News to update readers on Epilepsy Ireland’s plans for International Epilepsy Day – thank you to the editorial team for the invite to contribute.

As I write this, we are just weeks away from International Epilepsy Day on February 10th. This is our most important day of the year where we seek to increase public understanding and awareness of a condition that affects over 45,000 people in Ireland today.

This year, like previous years and as guided by the people we represent, we are building a new campaign to highlight the importance of knowing how to correctly respond to a seizure and those three important words of TIME, SAFE, STAY.

The new campaign will be featured on traditional media, TV, digital billboards, radio and of course, social media. The campaign will be fronted by our two incredible volunteers, Emma and Gareth, whose images will be used to show that epilepsy and seizure first aid becomes much clearer when you know about TIME, SAFE, STAY! But what exactly do we mean about by these three key words?

TIME – the first thing you should do is TIME the seizure. This is because if a seizure goes over 5 minutes, an ambulance should be called.

SAFE – keep the person SAFE during the seizure. If a person is having a convulsive seizure, cushion their head with something soft, if possible and remove any harmful objects, e.g. furniture from their vicinity. NEVER put anything in a person’s mouth or restrain them during a seizure. Be aware that there are also types of seizures where the person does not experience convulsions. Instead, they may “zone out” or stare blankly, become confused or agitated, display behaviours like chewing, smacking their lips, fiddling with their clothes, or wandering aimlessly. In this type of seizure, the person’s awareness of their surroundings is affected, and it is important to gently guide the person away from any danger. As with convulsive seizures, never restrict the person’s movements.

STAY – during the seizure and after it passes, STAY with the person. Often after a seizure, a person with epilepsy will be confused and, in many cases, exhausted. Make sure to stay with them until recovery is complete, explain what has happened and gently reassure them. The person may have experienced an injury if they have fallen, and if this is the case, ensure normal first aid steps are taken.

This marks the fifth year that we have promoted the key words of TIME, SAFE, STAY when it comes to seizure response, following its inception in 2021. Why do we keep returning to the promotion of these key words? In short, it is working!

For the past 10 years, we have been regularly commissioning and tracking ‘market research’ data on public awareness of and attitudes to epilepsy. It is very interesting and encouraging to look at some of the changes that have taken place in that time:

• A person should be restrained during a seizure – 18% agreed with this statement in 2013 compared to just 5% in 2024.
• Almost all seizures involve falling to the ground followed by stiffening and jerking movements – 43% agreed this statement was true in 2013. This had fallen to 19% in 2024.
• Put an object in a person’s mouth during a seizure – 51% agreed with this statement was true in 2013 vs 21% in 2024.
• Timing the seizure is a key seizure response – 1% said this was correct in 2013 but thanks to TIME-SAFE-STAY, this jumped to 45% by 2024.

Public attitudes do not change overnight and there is still work to do but is clear that we are moving in the right direction – particularly since the introduction of Time, Safe, Stay in 2021.

We hope we will continue to see increased understanding of epilepsy and seizure first aid following February 10th through our new campaign and would appeal to readers of Hospital Professional News to please share TIME, SAFE, STAY with their colleagues, patients, family and friends. We also have detailed posters which can be downloaded, printed and shared from our website.

As always, should Epilepsy Ireland be of assistance to you either in a personal or professional capacity, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us by calling 01 455 7500, emailing info@epilepsy.ie or by visiting www.epilepsy.ie.

Written by Paddy McGeoghegan, Epilepsy Ireland

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