FUNDEPI, IBE’s Associate Member in Argentina, was founded in 1993 and the main objectives of the association are:
- services to diagnose and treat epilepsy;
- promoting scientific advances in relation to epilepsy;
- providing free support and assistance to people with epilepsy and to their relatives;
- promoting the formation of self-help groups;
- training coordinators of self-help groups to provide these groups with the necessary human resources, technical support or necessary materials for their operation;
- to improve the quality of life of people with epilepsy;
- to offer psychological assistance and to integrate the person with epilepsy within the family nucleus.
Since Argentina has recently introduced legislation on epilepsy, the National Law of Epilepsy Nr 25.404, this project will consist in monitoring the newly introduced legislation. FUNDEPI will study how succesfully the law is being implemented. The association will monitor, in particular:
- whether the new legislation has had an impact on the gap between diagnosis and treatment;
- the implementation of the legislation with respect to employment issues;
- the situation for indigenous communities where the use of traditional medicines still exists;
- implementation of educational programmes for health care professionals at primary level;
- whether the law has had an impact on stigma related to epilepsy. This element will be addressed by way of a planned survey.
The project will receive US$5,000 from the Promising Strategies Program.