Psychological support to 100 Parkinson Patients

During this reporting period, Parkinson patients support organization Ethiopia was taking Agreements have been reached with Portion on the basis of their pricing and print quality to enable them to reprint national booklets designed to help Parkinson's patients, their families and caregivers, as well as the general public, increase their awareness and knowledge.

In addition, a series of 1,000 leaflets have been produced at the Parkinson's Foundation and in the context of national realities to answer key questions in the Patient Experience and Awareness Forum, which can help identify key issues. With the help of home-based care and support physicians, more than 25 Parkinson's patients were visited, and hygiene kits were distributed alongside their professional support and care.

Lesson Learn

As an organization, Parkinson's patient support organization acquires the necessary skill in knowledge management and documentation; to address the PD patients and their caregivers and the public at large, it is critical to internalize the actual truth and facts on the ground. and for the best point of forwarding and addressing most frequent questions raising among the direct and indirect targets, possible inputs, and the needs and type of patients have been collected and organized for different purposes and publications are among one of them.

It is clearly known that among the challenges that matter to Parkinson’s patients most are psychological stress and hallucination. This is mainly because, in one or another way, they are more vulnerable to and exposed to different socioeconomic and emotional strains due to various circumstances. It is a fact that stress increases the damage of dopamine cells and result in serious Parkinson's symptoms.

Therefore, the organization had made different approaches to empower the psychological wellbeing of its patients through friendly ways by incorporating the activity with other patient inspiration and motivational training. As a result, they are calm and try to test the hallucinations, empowered with how to focus on what they can do, and play alongside by taking care of their own safety. Parkinson patient support organization Ethiopia finds it critical that continuous psychological counseling services provided for PD patients who can either come to our office, visit during home to home care and support services or take part in the patient focus training contribute advanced valuable efforts to ensure their quality of life and witnessed practical changes observed over the life of its Parkinson’s patients.

Parkinson’s disease patients are exposed to different psychological stress and hallucination. The more patients go to advanced PD stage, the more they stay at their house. Inability to meet their friends and relatives puts PD patients in serious of stress and anxiety. In addition, inability to work, generate money and support the family as they used to do puts them in a serious frustration. Furthermore, hallucination is also commonly observed problem of PD patients. In order to overcome this problem, Parkinson’s patient support organization-Ethiopia facilitated continuous psychological counseling for PD patients who can come to our office and take the service. Currently, the service is given by two professionals once in a week. The organization planned to diversify the service by including home to home visit to bed ridden patients.

It is often said that psychological wellbeing is equivalent with physical health. Just like other people, Parkinson’s disease patients need to be psychologically well, and free from anxiety and depression, but the situation is different. Parkinson’s disease patients face sudden inability of engaging in to different things. The frequent tremor and poor body balance prevents them from engaging in social activities as they used. They gradually stop attending in to social activities and will be forced to stay at home. This and other situations create anxiety and depression. In order to eradicate that, the organization gives psychological support for patients. They are taught how to cope up and live happily with the disease. Many programs including experience sharing are arranged, so that patients get psychological relief

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological disease characterized by motor and non-motor  symptoms. ,motor symptoms characterized by tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia; however, clinical management requires attention beyond its motor features and needs to involve nonmotor features as well. This is because many patients, over the course of their PD, experience depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, psychosis, and behavioral and cognitive changes .many studies says that for patients and families, these neuropsychiatric disturbances are often more problematic and distressing than the motor aspects of PD . It is important to emphasize to patients, their families, and other colleagues that depressive disorders in PD are treatable and recovery is possible but this is not applicable in Ethiopia because of lack of physiological support but after GlobalGiving support many patients get physiological support and living better quality of life.