Parkinson's Patient Information Updates
The Parkinson's Patient Information Updates typically have 150 attendees, and consist of four hours of information, questions and answers, leaflets on a huge number of aspects of dealing with Parkinson's, and a chance to talk to others who know exactly what it is like to have Parkinson's, or care for someone with Parkinson's. All this with tea, coffee, and sandwiches half way through.
The feedback has all been hugely positive, as people don't always have access to information concerning their Parkinson's.
Speakers usually include a neurologist or geriatrician, physiotherapist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, and other topics covered include surgery and future treatments, medication, and at each, a patient tells her story of how surgery for Parkinson's has benefited her. The role of the Parkinson's Nurse Specialist is also detailed, and to each update we have added the topic of dealing with depression in Parkinson's, the most frequent subject of enquiries for information at our office.The cost at 10 euro, has been kept to a minimum thanks to a grant from Orion Pharma (Ireland) Ltd.
So why the need for these half-day meetings? We are discovering that most of the patients and carers have very little access to information, or indeed adequate services. There are a lot of hardworking health professionals out there, doing trojan work, but there are too few of them. Anyone with a long term neurological disorder needs to be seen by a specialist in the field, and since we have only fourteen neurologists in the country (with public attachments), that simply does not happen. In a survey done in the late 1990s and published in the Irish Medical Times, a huge percentage of GPs surveyed said that the condition they were least qualified to diagnose was Parkinson's.
Last updated October 19th, 2005 |
