April is Parkinson's Disease Month

Elder Care Insights

 April is Parkinson’s Disease Month

 Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological disease that affects multiple functions in the body and the course is generally progressive. There are 60,000 new diagnoses each year.  The classic symptoms that many of us associate with Parkinson’s are tremor, slowness of movement, and stiffness.

Medication therapy, physical therapy and newer brain stimulation therapy are some of the treatments being applied with individualized degrees of success.

 As geriatric care managers, we also see folks with one of the Parkinson’s Plus syndromes, which include Lewy body dementia. This type of memory loss also involves cognitive loss and vivid visual hallucinations.      

 In addition, up to 40 percent of people with Parkinson’s disease develop a mood disorder.  Research has shown that in some cases, depression may be the first sign of the disorder prior to the multiple physical symptoms.

 Because it is a slow progressive disease people tend to try to hide the condition and do not seek treatment as soon as they are aware of physical changes or diagnosis.  This creates great stress on the client’s and family system.

 At the time we generally see individuals with this disorder, they need additional home assistance and our families need significant emotional support and a long-range care plan.  Medication and treatments are expensive and life long.  Funding for care includes Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, long term care insurance and veterans benefits. Recent change to the Affordable Care Act has made it more difficult for people with some chronic conditions such as Parkinson’s to receive the same medical services they have used previously. 

 Accepting the diagnosis, community support, seeking services and early planning and education, including legal advice is key in assisting families to plan for the ongoing care that will be needed.  Resources to help people live with this condition are listed below.

 Parkinson’s information services Helpline 1-800-457-6676

CT Chapter Parkinson Disease 860-248-9200

WWW.PDF.org

 Lori O'Connor, MSN, APRN is a national certified professional geriatric care manager and a certified dementia specialist with Elder Care Consulting, LLC For more information contact us at www.eldercareconsultingllc.com 860-643-9500.