More Than Meets The Eye: Launch Of Important Campaign In Ireland For Parkinson's On May 1st

Main Category: Parkinson's Disease
Article Date: 27 Apr 2006 - 0:00 PDT

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April 24th-30th is Parkinson's Awareness Week, and an important week for the Parkinson's Association and for people with Parkinson's throughout Ireland, because, two days later, on May 1st, we are launching our first ever Parkinson's Patient Information Pack in a campaign entitled "More than Meets the Eye"! This is an important resource which will hopefully encourage all those with Parkinson's to become more informed about their treatment choices, and to take a more active role in the management of their Parkinson's. The pack contains a huge amount of information on Parkinson's, the medications, the phenomenon of "wearing off" (where a medication wears off before the next dose is due, resulting in a remergence of symptoms of varying degrees of severity) and how to minimise its effects, tips for coping with Parkinson's, a useful pill chart which shows the different medications, as well as information about the PAI. Every pharmacy in the country will receive a supply of these packs for their patients.

Access to information if you are someone with this neurological disorder, is vital, but extremely variable, particulariy away from the cities, and this is where these packs will be particularly useful, even essential, so we are asking all those with Parkinson's throughout the country to go to their pharmacist and ask for a Parkinson's information pack!

One of the functions of the Parkinson's Association is to lobby for better services for people with Parkinson's, which, as with other neurological disorders, are nothing short of scandalous particularly in a wealthy country like Ireland. To do this we need to encourage as many people with Parkinson's as possible to join the Association. "There is strength in numbers, and lobbying power", says our Chairperson, Una Anderson Ryan. "This is your organisation, your support group," Una says, "please join. You will have access to more information and support, and we find that seeing others live well despite Parkinson's can be very reassuring." To that end, the information pack also contains a membership form, along with details of our branches throughout Ireland.

This pack will be available from pharmacies throughout Ireland from May 1st. Already, following on the distribution to the pharmacies of a poster announcing the impending arrival of these packs, we have had so many phone calls from pharmacies to make sure they got these packs, and to indicate numbers required!

A pack for GPs will also be available, and one will be dispatched to every GP in the country, with similar but more medically oriented information, and we would ask that it be read from cover to cover!

This is the first time that we have tried to reach ALL of the people with Parkinson's in Ireland, and it is an ambitious campaign which will hopefully encourage the patients to become more informed so that they can discuss their treatment options with their GP or consultant.

We need to get the word out there - people with Parkinson's read the papers, watch the news. If isolated, and/or confined to home, they will read or hear about it through the media.

http://www.parkinsons.ie

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