By Mary Lackie

Many epileptics are overprotected by their families and become emotional cripples. With balanced medication, motivation, and the job opportunities available, 80 percent fare employable.

The Atlanta Service Center of the Epilepsy Foundation, under the direction of Thomas G. Streckfus, is part of a tri-city research-demonstration project sponsored by the Department of Labor. The project concentrates on helping the epileptic find employment through group job clinics.

The main problem the project encounters is reaching people who have epilepsy and informing them about the job clinic. In a recent tri-city survey (Atlanta, Chicago, Ill, San Antonio, Tex.), teen-agers were questioned regarding their vocations and outlook on employment. Streckfus said many parents who were called would deny their child had epilepsy and refused to discuss the questions.

Although this attitude makes recruitment difficult, Streckfus said, “We pride ourselves on what we have accomplished. We win a few and lose a few, but we’ve been more successful than we ever dreamed.

“We’ve had clients who stated crying as soon as we would talk to them; their families had led them to believe they were sick,” Streckfus said. “All of us have been in situations where we felt ill at ease or threatened; magnify this 1,000 times for someone who has never been with people and doesn’t know how to talk—it’s a helluva thing.”

The job clinics bring together 15-20 participants from diverse backgrounds who share common problems. The counselors direct the trend of conversations, but the clients help each other solve individual problems and prepare mock interviews in an informal atmosphere.

“I think of it as a Johnny Carson group counseling approach,” Streckfus said. “We are here to help the clients get employment, and use a variety of methods to motivate them-including kidding.”

As the sessions continue, participants at first shy and withdrawn, develop competence and accept themselves. One teen-age girl’s appearance completely changed, Streckfus said. “She’s a real swinger now.”

“Wherever you go for a job today, the game is the same—no matter who you are,” he said.

“There are application forms, interviews, character references. If you can’t talk to an employer, you can have all the skills in the world and not get the job.”

Sometimes participants are placed after the first or second session—others learn to expect three or four interviews before they find work. “What I like to see even more than the changes in grooming is the life that shows in their faces—the personality and assuredness,” Streckfus said. “And incidentally, working seems to help. Even without a change in medication, a person’s health improves.”

Part of the project’s operation is job placement. In some cases, participants have been lifted from one field of work to another where they feel more at ease and comfortable, Streckfus said. “It’s not what you have, but how you use it,” the participants learn.

Jobs vary from secretarial to hospital employment, to market research and factory work. Some participants have had no previous job experience, but if they are tenacious, they find work, Streckfus said.

Of the 238 who have participated in the sessions since the project began a year ago, 61 percent have found employment through the Center’s job referral program.

In a recent session, staff member Bruce Parker, Vista volunteers Ted Stevens and Sherry Petry discussed with participants interview techniques and attitudes of co-workers.

A participant who had been working regularly said, “What tore me off that job was the way people kidded me.” Other participants suggested he ignore the remarks, or try to get acquainted. Parker said, “Do your best; people like people who like them.”

He said, “At first I was a bitter person until I learned to straighten out situations. You have to like yourself, then you’ll like other people. You start caring how you look-whether it is for the job or not—I am telling you this from my own experience; I don’t think I could be any plainer than that.”

One young participant said, “Oh, I’ve been cussed at—but the worker came back to apologize. I said, “Lord have mercy on you, baby! Since then, I haven’t been bothered.”

Parker gave an example of the importance of being friendly. “We had an epileptic in here with four strikes against him. He was so nervous he couldn’t light a cigarette. He was bitter—he didn’t have a chip on his shoulder, he had a lob. He had just finished six years of a 10-year prison term. Before that, he had been in Milledgeville.”

The service center found him a place to stay at the Salvation Army where he could do odd jobs while attending the sessions. The man was placed in a factory where he was so well-liked by his co-workers that he was transferred six times until the company found a job he could do well. “He has lost his stutter, and isn’t the same man.”

Parker, a native Atlantan, has been with the project since it began. He said there is an increase in job opportunities; a definite breakthrough. Employers in large and small companies are beginning to call the center to discuss job openings for the clients.

Deepening the employers’ thinking and broadening their understanding about epilepsy is another phase of the center’s work. Streckfus said, “It takes time and patience—but all I ask is that the employer interview our clients and give them the same chance they would give anyone else.”

VISTA volunteers aid the small staff in follow-ups and home visits. “We’ve found people places to live, referred them for medication, helped them with jobs—but the ones that fade away are the ones I worry about,” Streckfus said.

The next job clinic at the City Center, 840 Marietta St., N.W., begins Dec. 12, Tues.-Thurs., 1 p.m.-3 p.m. The project is anxious to help every epileptic help himself, Streckfus emphasized.

Anyone interested in the clinic—epileptics and employers alike—can obtain information at the Atlanta Service Center, 881 Peachtree St., N.E., Room 220, or by phoning 873-5452.