ParkinsonWISE – Truly a WIN – WIN!

By Marianne Oliphant, Former Treasurer, Parkinson Association of Northern California

“Know anything about Parkinson’s” asked Ron of Brian, a fitness trainer at our local gym. “Not really” said Brian, “but I can do some research on the Internet” he eagerly offered. Ron wanted to be able to go to his neighborhood gym and have a fitness professional knowledgeable in the special challenges he faced as a person with Parkinson’s available to guide his workout program…..but random information from the Internet wasn’t going to do it. How could Brian learn about Parkinson’s from the medical professionals we all see every day? And so was planted the seed for what became ParkinsonWISE, and the outstanding, focused program for fitness and wellness professionals that was held by Kaiser Neuroscience on April 30, 2016, only three months after the initial question! The whirlwind of planning and scheduling began right away, when the PANC board enthusiastically embraced the concept of educating fitness and wellness professionals.

Christine Shade, a NeuroPhysical Therapist with Kaiser and a member of the board, enthusiastically offered that Kaiser already had programs developed for internal training and thought they could be modified for our neighborhood professionals. Dr. Suketu M. Khandhar immediately championed the concept and offered to personally lead the training. He presented the idea to the members of the PANC Medical Advisory Panel, comprised of the leading regional Parkinson’s specialists at Sutter, UC Davis, Dignity as well as Kaiser, at the regularly scheduled quarterly meeting of the Journal Club in January. More enthusiasm and support!!! The ball was rolling on what we feel is a revolutionary program. To our knowledge, this sort of medical/professional collaboration exists nowhere else.

April 30, 2016, saw 45 dedicated professionals take their Saturday morning to attend the three-hour session held at Kaiser’s Point West facility. The program focused on basic Parkinson information and targeted solutions for common issues such as freezing, balance, soft speech, etc.

Not only does ParkinsonWISE offer benefits to the person with Parkinson’s, it offers the opportunity to the individual professionals to advertise that they have been educated in Parkinson’s issues and obtained their Certificate of Attendance.

These folks will be listed on our website. www.panctoday. org. Truly a win – win. We hope that you will look for these new resources in your neighborhood.

Parkinson Path - Summer 2016