AN ANALYSIS OF WHAT YOU TOLD US
Analyzing the surveys was a challenge because of the way in which the questions were asked and answered. We asked in each case that you rank your degree of concern about the issue on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being "not at all concerned"and 5 being "very concerned." Because we had chosen issues that were likely to be of concern to people living with epilepsy, there was a tendency for most people to rank most questions as a 4 or 5. For that matter, the comments also told us that your "degree of concern" was not always focused in the same way.
For example, some people were concerned about the revoking of driver’s licenses because they thought that people with epilepsy should be allowed to drive and a fairer system is needed to determine whether a person is truly safe to drive. Others, however, were equally concerned about the issue, but because they felt that some people with epilepsy should not be allowed to drive. In other words, your degree of concern about an issue in general is not the same as your degree of agreement with a particular statement about that issue.
Consequently, the main focus of these results is on the issues ranked
#1 by the most people. Despite the challenges in analysis, though, the results showed interesting trends, and will help to direct our efforts in the future. Perhaps most significant of all, we gave people affected by epilepsy in Canada their first ever opportunity to speak as a community rather than as isolated individuals.
The large number of responses and comments means that we cannot
include them all here. Our volunteers will be continuing to work with the results to identify areas of concern and plans to act on those issues. However, in this newsletter, we’ll focus on the top five survey issues as identified by YOU!
No. I Issue:
“In many movies, books and TV shows, persons with epilepsy are portrayed as being ‘crazy’ or ‘evil’”(Statement #3)
This statement was the object of the most concern, chosen first
by 20.5% of respondents. The negative portrayal of people with epilepsy has caused great difficulties for centuries, but in our age of modern communications, these negative images can reach even more people, potentially deepening the understanding
of epilepsy in our communities. Improving the public’s perception, and responding to the negative images is one
of the greatest challenges we all face in our efforts to improve the quality of life for people living with epilepsy.
Sample comments received about the media’s negative portrayal
of people with epilepsy:
"This statement, as with most of the statements on the survey, did not "stand alone." If you were thought of as "crazy" or "evil" because you had epilepsy, this would naturally have an impact on employability, social life, custody cases, education issues and more."
"The top three issues I have chosen relate to each other. When person[s] in power and in the general community do not understand, it leads to less opportunity i.e. education, employment and other."
"Social ignorance exacerbated by the media."
"Public attitudes eventually impact on public policy."
"It is difficult to get a job when people view you as crazy or retarded."
"Ignorance and stigmatization hampers integration into society."
"Self-esteem is adversely affected when others view you as abnormal or subnormal."
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
|
