Whole person health in epilepsy: prioritizing care-partner wellbeing.

The experiences of care-partners of people with epilepsy are complex and dynamic throughout the lifespan, yet their wellbeing remains insufficiently recognized within care systems. There is a public health need to examine and address the wellbeing of epilepsy care-partners. Utilizing the National Institute of Health (NIH) Whole Person Health framework, we present a narrative synthesis of often-overlooked challenges faced by epilepsy care-partners, along with potential strategies for improving their identification, measurement, support and advocacy. These considerations are essential to advancing a whole-person health approach that addresses the needs of both individuals with epilepsy and their care-partners as an interconnected dyad. We present a call to action for clinicians and systems of epilepsy care to invest in research and resources to improve health outcomes and wellbeing for care-partners of people with epilepsy; and to innovate epilepsy center care pathways that are inclusive of whole person health values and logic for epilepsy dyads.