By Emma Stone
The World Parkinson Congress, hosted by the World Parkinson Coalition, held over 2,600 people from 73 different countries consisting of scientific sessions, poster sessions and networking events on Parkinson’s Disease.
Louisiana Tech professor and qualitative researcher, Donna Hood, traveled to Barcelona, Spain, this year to give two presentations on the work being done at Tech.
The first presentation was “Academic Community Partnership” that showcased three different projects on Tech’s campus that aids students in learning about Parkinson’s.
“What we found by our first study is that there are just not that many movement disorder specialists here in North Louisiana,” said Hood.
While the Rock Steady Boxing Program previously existed on Tech’s campus, they created the Parkinson’s Resource Center that hosts classes every Wednesday, free for those with Parkinson’s and their caregivers.
Denise Pyles, Louisiana Tech assistant professor of nursing, works with students to help guide the classes.
“It’s like an exercise class,” said Pyles. “A lot of stretching, a lot of fine motor movements for the patients and a lot of repetitive movements.”
The students that help with patients will conduct webinars, readings and offer brochures or booklets to help educate others on the disease.
“Parkinson’s is unlike any other disease process,” said Pyles. “Every three months we will do a brunch/lunch and learn where we try to bring in informational meetings, so that they’re not forgotten.”
The second presentation was “Providing Authentic Learning Experiences about Parkinson’s Disease: Bringing Humanity into the Classroom” in which qualitative researchers from four different universities studied individuals living with Parkinson’s.
“We studied their journaling, then analyzed it to see how effective our efforts were at helping,” said Hood. “We can all learn something from each other, and we all have different resources we can showcase.”
Other universities that assisted were Towson University, University of Pennsylvania and Virginia Commonwealth University.
For more information about the Parkinson’s Resource Center, feel free to reach out to Hood with 318-257-4287.
