Employment and safety at work

This information is for prison staff dealing with prisoners with epilepsy. Further information on employment is on our website.

Employment

On the whole, having epilepsy doesn’t mean someone shouldn’t work.

If someone has had a seizure the night before, or on waking up, they may need time to recover before starting work. Although some people do recover quite quickly from a seizure, others can need to sleep for some while, sometimes for hours.

Safety at work

Things you will need to think about:

• working at heights
• working in the kitchens
• working with machinery

You will need to look at each case individually. Does the prisoner have seizures or are they controlled? If the prisoner does have seizures, what type are they? Does the prisoner have a warning? When do the seizures normally happen?

If someone has a seizure this could inevitably take attention away from everyone else. Having a procedure in place for dealing with seizures will minimise the risk to security.