Our Symposium draws attendees from far and wide to learn more about Parkinson’s treatments and resources, and to connect with others who have PD. Many attendees are involved in one or more support groups, so for the last several years, WPA has led a training for support group facilitators on the Thursday before the Symposium.
One of the most important goals of this year’s facilitator training was to hear directly from the facilitators on how things were going in their groups and to identify ways in which WPA can best support their efforts. Stemming from that discussion, here are some important ways in which WPA expects to increase our partnerships with these facilitators and the groups they lead:
- Creation of a speaker’s bureau in order to simplify the often challenging process of getting PD experts to attend group meetings.
- Step up our efforts to assist groups to publicize their meetings and reach potential new members.
- Check in with group facilitators more regularly to hear how things are going, see if they currently need any assistance from WPA, and share their efforts with WPA’s “audience”.
- Explore ways where we can more often bring together facilitators to exchange ideas and challenges and learn from the best teachers – each other!
- Develop publications and programming to better serve caregivers, those newly diagnosed with PD and the young onset community.
- Formalize a grant program to provide small financial support that would have a big impact on the effectiveness of groups and the quality of life of their members.
We are so grateful for the commitment of these support group facilitators to their groups and to WPA!