Registered Nurse and Certified Dementia Practitioner with The Arbor Company, Teresa Keating, joins us to discuss specialized care for those battling Parkinson's disease.
Video Transcript
- Hello, everybody, and welcome in to "Senior Living Live". My name is Melissa. Thank you so much for watching, and for those of you joining us via podcast, thank you so much for finding us. Today, we are going to discuss a special care network specifically designed for those who are battling Parkinson's disease and are looking for more specialized care. Teresa Keating, she is back with us today on the program to help explain how this can help. Teresa, how are you today?
- I'm great, Melissa, how are you?
- Doing wonderful, thank you so much for being back with us. Now, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what you do day-to-day with the Arbor Company.
- So, I am a registered nurse, I'm a certified dementia practitioner, and I have been with the Arbor Company for over seven and a half years. I have worked as an executive director, and currently I am working as a senior care counselor at Barrington Terrace in Fort Myers.
- Now, we talk a lot on our show about dementia, and it is one of the most popular topics we have. Our webinars usually last about an hour; when we talk about dementia, they go 90 minutes plus. We have a lot of interest because there isn't a lot that's known, I think, about this disease, when there's a loved one that has somebody who's been recently diagnosed with it. There's all kinds of information out there, there is no cure for this obviously, but what we don't do a lot of is we don't touch a lot on Parkinson's disease, and a lot of people suffer from this. So some people like to link the two together, dementia and Parkinson's, that they're similar, but they do have quite a few differences. Can you share those?
- Yes, now Parkinson's can lead to thinking and memory problems due to the changes with the structure and the chemistry in the brain, but not necessarily so. With dementia, it's more a list of symptoms that occurs with significant loss in brain function. But Parkinson's is one of the fastest, unfortunately, growing neurodegenerative diseases in the world, and it is more of a movement disorder, and that is resulting from a lack of dopamine which affects balance, stiffness, tremors, slowness, and it can affect many different aspects of the body, not just the brain.
- Yeah, now your community in particular became a part of the Struthers Parkinson's Care Network, and that's really what we're talking about today. So can you tell us what this is, the membership that is involved and how it helps residents there?
- So the Struthers Parkinson's Care Network, they were formulated to help provide training and best practices for helping residents with Parkinson's, and their whole goal is to help the Parkinson's resident live a full and productive life. There are many things with Parkinson's that are very effective, but the training is needed, and so with this network, they have had different programs for every aspect of a resident's life. They provide training for the physical therapist, occupational therapist, and speech therapist. They have specific training for engagement staff, the best way to connect with residents who have Parkinson's. They have specific training for caregivers, they have training for the nurses, and so it's a comprehensive team approach on how to help someone with Parkinson's. They use what's called a TULIP approach, and those letters each describe, T is for time, to give the resident enough time to listen, to communicate, and for us to hear what's being communicated. The U is understanding that a Parkinson resident may have good and bad days, and also with their abilities, it's like they're on and they can be off on different days. The L is to live a life with quality, doing the things that they still like to do, so focusing on their abilities that they still have, not what they have lost. I is an increased awareness and education of what someone with Parkinson's needs. P is pills on time, which is very, very important. With the lack of dopamine in the brain, there needs to be a constant replacement of this chemical so that the resident can have the abilities that they're able to do to be successful. And then S is support. There's a tremendous amount of support needed for the families, for the resident, and so with this training, they have enabled us to have a better understanding of the Parkinson's condition, and then share those with the support for the families and the resident.
- Yeah, great, that was really comprehensive and I think really spells out what that is, so thank you for that, Teresa. Now, can you give us an example of a typical day at the community for someone who is suffering from Parkinson's specifically, and how their needs differ from general senior care?
- So, someone suffering from Parkinson's, when they wake up in the morning, they may feel completely different and they can be different throughout the day, so really, the caregiver instruction surrounds how that resident is in the morning. It can be as different as a resident having a good day, where they get up and they don't really need that much help, to having an off day where they might need one person or two person transfers. So making sure that the caregiver knows what kind of day they're having and how to react accordingly. And not all Parkinson's residents do present the same way, so there is communication that is needed from the caregivers to the nurses to the engagement staff as to what the daily routine is needing to be. Understanding their abilities with activities of daily living, because they can vary, we do need to adapt the day as needed. Exercise is a very important part because of this being a movement disorder, and we have the skilled therapy that the resident receives one-on-one, and they also go to an exercise class that's here every morning at 10:15. The meals are adapted texture-wise, or the use of adapted equipment if they were having difficulty using utensils. The mealtime is designed to allow the resident to have as much dignity with the symptoms that they have. We do also have the Dining With Dignity program here, which is making any meal that the residents are eating into a form of finger food, like in puff pastry or a quiche, that if they were having difficulty using a utensil, they can use their hands to be able to eat that way and still feel like they're participating in the meal. We use the activities that are appropriate for the residents with Parkinson's, and we ask them for feedback. We have actually a shuffle ball court with two golf holes in our courtyard that a resident with Parkinson's has asked for to help him with balance and mobility, and plus he wanted to improve his golf game, but I couldn't get a whole golf course in there.
- Aw, well, I think just to hear the individualized care, it's wonderful, that's really what it comes down to, right? 'Cause no two people are the same, and if two people have Parkinson's, as you said, somebody's gonna have a good day, somebody maybe not have such a good day, and the care is going to be tailored to how that individual is feeling on that particular day, so it really is hyper-individualized, as it should be, and I love that so much, that you have staff that understands this and they do whatever the resident needs at that time, and I think that's what makes it so important and so key. So, as with anything, education is really the key that unlocks almost everything in life, certainly in this conversation, to give you an idea of what you can do to help. If somebody wants to learn more about this program in particular or about your community and how it's utilized, who can they call?
- So the Struthers Care Network is available online to reach out for information, and they are a fantastic resource. If the organizations would like to contact them and get certified themselves, that would be wonderful. The more education and training that's out there, the better we all will be. This is, like I said, the fastest growing. The other ways, apart from getting educated online, you can also reach out to me, I'd be more than happy to give further information on how we have made this program so successful here, and my phone number is 239-334-2500.
- Well, I certainly hope that this conversation today helps even just one of our viewers out there. If you or a loved one is battling Parkinson's, we see you, we hear you, and we are here to help, people like Teresa and our staff. Teresa, thank you so much for sharing your information and your knowledge with us today.
- Oh, you're welcome, it's my pleasure.
- Thank you. Now, if you enjoyed watching this video or listening to this podcast with Teresa, please feel free to head on over to our website, www.seniorlivinglive.com. You can find more from Teresa there, or other guest speakers, all about senior living, and it is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As always, we appreciate you all watching "Senior Living Live". Have a great day, everybody.
