[re+think]

Answer:  Yes, if it is the RIGHT class! There is growing evidence that working in groups is beneficial for people with PD for motivational reasons, accountability, emotional and psychological support, and for socialization (among other things).  Since we started group exercise classes at [re+active], we were curious about whether a patient doing group therapy could actually improve function or would participation just help them maintain at the same level (or just slow progression since it is a neurodegenerative disease!).  So we decided to test our hypothesis in a patient case and see. We created our [re+move] High Intensity Parkinson’s Exercise class to target specific problems that people with Parkinson’s disease have, such as difficulties with balance, walking, turning, agility, coordination, functional movement, bradykinesia, and stiffness.  We put this all into one fun group class set to music!  The time frame for this trial class was 1 time pe...

Patient goals.  These are the primary driving force behind physical therapy interventions.  But recently I began to wonder… why do they seem so one sided?  I had to re-evaluate how I was setting goals for my patients since coming into an outpatient setting after years of inpatient rehab.  There are very different objectives in the 2 settings.  In inpatient rehab, the goal is clear – get the patient home!  In outpatient, the goal can be much broader – I want to play tennis again, or very specific – I want to walk heel-toe.  I would write these goals for patients, along with the outcome measure-based goals for improved TUG times, FGA for balance, gait velocity, etc, but it never really felt like these goals were a real collaboration.  They felt more like my goals or ones I had to write out of obligation to the payer sources.  Of course, meeting the outcome-based goals would ultimately get the patient to move better and safer, but ...