We've begun planning for International Epilepsy Day 2026!

International Epilepsy Day (IED) takes place next year on February 9th 2026.

In most recent years, our campaigns have focused on improving knowledge of seizure first aid and Time, Safe, Stay to the public. All campaigns which have been conducted since 2019 can be found by visiting the 'Advocacy' section of the Epilepsy Ireland website - should you wish to look back on them before completing this survey.

As we look ahead to the campaign for next year, we'd appreciate your thoughts and feedback to help guide us as we build our campaign for #EpilepsyDay 2026!

In your responses, we'd ask you to mindful that our #EpilepsyDay campaigns are targeted at the general public - therefore, be mindful that the campaign's audience may have little to no experience of epilepsy or knowledge about the condition.

We'd also encourage you to look through all the questions included in this survey before completing.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey!

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* 1. Please tell us how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statements.

  Strongly agree Slightly Agree Not sure Slightly Disagree Strongly Disagree
More work is needed to educate the public on what to do if someone has a seizure and the key words of Time, Safe, Stay
More work is needed to dispel myths and misconceptions about epilepsy amongst the public
More work is needed to educate the public that epilepsy is 'more than seizures'
More work is needed to show the public some of the real-life challenges which can exist when living with epilepsy

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* 2. Is there a particular theme(s) you feel our campaign should focus on in order to educate the public about epilepsy?

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* 3. How important are each of these aspects of International Epilepsy Day in your opinion?

  Very important Somewhat important Not sure Somewhat unimportant Not important at all
Presenting lived experiences of epilepsy.
Ensuring the public have a simple, memorable message from the campaign.
Securing as much radio/ newspaper/ TV coverage as possible.
Ensuring a wide social media reach

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* 4. In your opinion, how important are each of the following communication channels in getting the #EpilepsyDay campaign messages out to the general public?

  Very important Somewhat important Not sure Somewhat unimportant Not at all important
Social Media
National Newspapers (e.g. Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Daily Mail, Daily Star etc)
TV
National Radio (e.g. RTE, Today FM, Newstalk)
Local Radio and Newspapers
Podcasts and advertising on podcasts
Other Media (Billboards, Digital Displays etc)

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* 5. Are there any other forms of communication that you feel can or should be used to increase public awareness of epilepsy?

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* 6. What kind of materials do you like best for public awareness campaigns? Rank in order from 1 to 5 where 1 is the most important and 5 the least important

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* 7. Are there any other materials that you would like to see used in a campaign or you feel should be considered?

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* 8. From our previous campaigns, we have used our budget to get as much reach as possible on different forms of media - for example, securing adverts in newspapers; running audio adverts on radio; social media adverts; getting billboard space etc. This means smaller spends across a number of different placements.

If we were to use a larger portion of our budget to increase reach on a certain type of media, meaning we forego potential reach on other forums, would you agree or disagree with this?
(For example, allocating majority of budget to run radio ads, rather than diluting overall budget trying to get placements across all forms of media)

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* 9. Do you think it would be appropriate to use our campaign to potentially focus on one key impact of living with epilepsy or to dispel an epilepsy myth?
(For example, a campaign solely focused on trying to dispel the myth of putting something in a person's mouth during a seizure)

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* 10. Do you think it would be appropriate to use humour in our #EpilepsyDay campaign if it meant creating a lasting message?

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* 11. Do you think it would be appropriate to use real-life seizure videos as part of a campaign to show the real impact of epilepsy?

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* 12. Do you have any other thoughts you would like to share about #EpilepsyDay or highlight anything you feel is important to the day?

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