Optimizing Outcomes for Individuals with Parkinsons Disease: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Course overview

There are many challenges (and rewards!) working with clients with Parkinsons disease. There is a continued ongoing effort to identify the optimal treatment techniques for these individual people to better support the busy therapist. However, the variation of presentations of these individual people makes it extremely difficult to develop the optimal treatment approach. Assisting in this requires keeping up with the latest literature to drive the optimal outcome measure choice along with the most up to date recommendations to improve the development of a plan of care. This course will focus on knowledge translation of key concepts into clinical practice. The course will focus on some of the following but is not limited to: Key components of creating an evidence-based exercise program for individuals with Parkinsons, including aerobic and skill-based training, medication optimization for therapists, facial muscle exercises, amplitude training for activities of daily living, and dual task training including an active interdisciplinary circuit for the learner to engage in.