Colleagues with a specialism in Parkinson’s disease (PD), who work as part of the Neuro Huddersfield Community rehab team, are out and about next week raising awareness about the condition.

For Parkinson’s awareness week (20-26th April) they will join the local Parkinson’s disease society branch at Huddersfield Town Hall for their annual awareness raising event, to be held on April 15th. They participate each year with this event, to offer extra support, information, awareness of local services for patients and carers of people with Parkinson’s disease and the public.

The team includes speech therapists, dietitians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurse, and rehabilitation assistants. They are based in Huddersfield, although a similar service is offered in Calderdale. People are mainly seen in their own homes and we  also support patients who are admitted to hospital/intermediate care. The team also visits work places and gyms with the patient.

A highly effective pathway is in place. People will be referred to the team from consultants, following clinics, or more often from the specialist Parkinson’s disease nurse (this post is currently vacant but is being recruited to), or their GP.

We encourage early referral to support patients to live well with their condition, to prevent problems, improve awareness, and inform them of the national/local support available to them. We can also signpost them to other services, provide equipment and promote self-management. We provide treatment as required, work across the whole PD team as appropriate and carry out regular reviews as indicated in national guidelines. This ensures we “nip things in the bud” with input from a team of staff which has built up a knowledge of and relationship with patient/carer, working with them in partnership to manage their condition at every stage of their care. This often involves our local PD support worker, the branch and colleagues in other services. Once known to our team, patients can self-refer back with any issues, or these will have been noted during the reviews of their condition.