Charlotte NC
Teacher Training in
“Poised for Parkinson’s” Course
A replicable AT-based course for
People Living With Parkinson’s and their Care Partners
DATES
Sunday, July 14 - Thursday, July 18, 2019
LOCATION
Anatomywise Studio
115 North Main Street, Suite 212
Mount Holly NC
(15 minutes from Charlotte Douglas Airport) (MAP)
TIMES
Sunday-Wednesday 10:00am-7:30pm
Thursday 10:00am-5:00pm
COST: $750 - AT Teachers with 5+ years of teaching experience
All funds go to support The Poise Project's grassroots efforts in AT job creation, program development, research, implementation, and industry networking. This is how we are sustaining the nonprofit infrastructure and staff that makes this project possible over both the short and the long term. There are so many AT teacher opportunities and so much growth potential if we can work together with a strategic, targeted focus!
Long-term payment plans are encouraged and available for any AT teacher. We understand that you have financial pressure. This is WHY The Poise Project was created! We want to make sure that all AT teachers have new work opportunities and greater job security. We don't want cost to be a barrier to ANY interested and motivated team participant in this pioneering initiative.
OBJECTIVE
To train experienced AT teachers to deliver this AT-based course for people living with Parkinson’s and their care partners. You will be part of an important international project. We are organizing a team of teachers around the world to deliver the first-ever replicable AT-based course to broad socio-economic groups.
Please join this pioneering project! We have developed a successful course that can now be delivered in a wide variety of settings, regions, and countries.
“Poised for Parkinson’s” was developed with funding from the Parkinson’s Foundation. It was part of an IRB approved research study through the University of Idaho led by Dr. Rajal Cohen, who is the Scientific Consultant for The Poise Project. The course curriculum and protocols were written by Monika Gross and Monica Norcia.
“Poised for Parkinson’s” is an eight-week group course meeting twice a week for 90-minutes with a maximum of 12 participants.
The course was delivered four times at sites in North Carolina between January 2019-May 2019. As part of a pilot study, data from these four courses was collected pre-course and post-course, and will also be collected at 4 months and 8 months post course. We also are using a control group to measure outcomes against.
Our preliminary data has already been presented at the 5th World Parkinson Congress in Kyoto, Japan in June 2019 and the American Society for the Alexander Technique in New York City in July 2019. We will be presenting additional data at the International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders in Nice, France in September 2019, and at the American Congress for Rehabilitation Medicine in Chicago in November 2019.
Both our qualitative and our quantitative data look very strong! We are incredibly encouraged by the interest that is being expressed to us from medical and allied health professionals to have this new approach to improving the quality of life of their patients and their patients’ families. The course has terrific potential to become a sought after and rewarding element in current interdisciplinary care for people living with Parkinson’s.
Monika Gross presenting research on the “Poised for Parkinson’s” course at the 5th World Parkinson Congress in Kyoto, Japan, June 4-7, 2019
OUR GOAL
To reproduce this course at multiple sites around the world so that we can demonstrate the potential for a successful expansion of AT-based subsidized programs for other target populations as well. In this way we are working strategically to remove barriers to access to the AT principles across broader socioeconomic groups.
Our other AT-based replicable program, “Partnering with Poise”, a self-care course for care partners, has been very successful. Again through initial funding from the Parkinson’s Foundation, we ran the course at 10 sites in NC and DC, and did a pilot study with data again presented at international conferences. The course is easily adapted to any group of care partners, and we have since received a new grant from the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and are delivering the course in Chapel Hill and Mount Holly NC to care partners of people living with dementia. We also were contracted by IONA Senior Services in DC to run the course there for a general population of family caregivers. This was through funding from the DC Office of Aging and Community Living.
There is such great potential for successful expansion of both of these courses!
This year we are training teachers in America and Europe to launch “Poised for Parkinsons’”.
WE WILL COVER:
All parts of the detailed training course manual, including the sixteen class lesson plans; class structure; course goals; course terminology; and detailed aspects of administering the course.
In depth training in understanding Parkinson’s disease and how each of the sixteen classes address those issues.
Video and other feedback from prior “Poised for Parkinson’s” participants as well as information from the research we did in North Carolina.
How to understand, manage, and troubleshoot the group dynamics in these blended classes of people living with Parkinson’s and their care partners.
Basic training in The Poise Project strategic model and in the overall goals of the project and clarification of agreements with instructors.
Next steps, including ongoing communications and responsibilities; continued team support; strategies for finding funding and community partnerships locally; and future developments.
The Charlotte training will be led by Monika Gross, Executive Director of The Poise Project, and designer of the course.
Please contact Monika Gross for more details and with questions about the full scope of this project: 828-254-3102 or monika.gross@thepoiseproject.org
REGISTRATION LINK
Space is limited
https://www.thepoiseproject.org/charlotte-poised-for-parkinsons-course-training
Some Participants from “Poised for Parkinson’s” courses in North Carolina
BACKGROUND
The Poise Project administered our first grant from the Parkinson's Foundation in 2017-2018 to deliver an AT-based course for care partners of PlwPD, “Partnering with Poise”, at eight sites in North Carolina. We received a second grant in early 2018 to expand this program into Washington DC. We received our third grant from the Parkinson's Foundation in mid-2018 to design and deliver this new AT-based course for PlwPD, “Poised for Parkinson’s”, at three sites in North Carolina, and a fourth grant in 2019 to expand it to three more locations in North Carolina.
In relation to these programs, we did research projects to measure the efficacy and long term retention of AT training for PlwPD and care partners.
We are planning 2019 trainings in these courses in North Carolina in July; in California in August; in Budapest and in Basel in September; and in Chicago in October/November.
Graduation celebration of participants in a “Poised for Parkinson’s” course in Asheville NC, May 2019
