Project Access: Improving Access to Care for Children/Youth with Epilepsy and Their Families in Rural and Frontier Communities

This three-year project (2007-2010) is one of 5 national demonstration projects funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The projects are charged with developing, implementing, and evaluating systems strategies to improve access to health and other services and supports related to epilepsy.

This project aims specifically to improve access to health care and related services for children and youth with epilepsy who live in rural and frontier communities in Alaska, California, Nevada, and Wyoming. The project seeks to assure access to an integrated system of health and related services by establishing community-based State Teams that will work within each state and cross-regionally toward improved systems of care. State Teams collaborate with Epilepsy Foundation affiliates to develop comprehensive models of care and to eradicate stigma by increasing public awareness and understanding of the disorder. Project Access serves children with epilepsy, their families, and the primary and specialty care providers who serve them.