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Decades ago, many Americans with disabilities didn't have a fair shake at joining the U-S workforce. Thanks to improvement in health care and the passage of anti-discrimination laws, more people with disabilities are now reaping the rewards of holding down a job.
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But University of Florida researchers have found that the continuing fear of discrimination in the workplace is a major reason that keeps people with epilepsy from searching for a job. U-F neurologists interviewed nearly three-hundred patients with epilepsy, a disorder characterized by recurrent seizures, and found that only about a third were employed. In fact, the overall unemployment rate among people with epilepsy is twice the national average. Decreased self-perception of the importance of work and fear of discrimination in the workplace were at the top of the list of reasons patients didn't seek employment. However, it remains to be seen whether their concerns a more a matter of perception than of reality as some studies suggest that the actual cases of workplace discrimination against people with epilepsy are becoming less common.
Dr. Ramon Bautista / UF neurologist
"Our study shows if they perceive fear at work, they're not going to work, whether rightly or wrongly, so there may be a way to educate them, and to encourage these employers to take them on."
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U-F experts say that effective treatment for epilepsy is becoming more widely available and that doctors and health-care professionals now need to look beyond the medical condition itself in order to identify those psychosocial factors that prevent patients from joining the workforce.
Dr. Ramon Bautista / UF neurologist
"For many people, work is an important part of life. There's a sense of fulfillment that comes with being employed, by being productive. It would be a shame if we as a health-care society ignored that and focused just on the medical needs of our patients."
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At the University of Florida Health Science Center, I'm Mike Garrison.
