 |
 |
Hi All, Is There a Support Group in Your Area? This is a perennial question. How can we answer it? To start with we have Parkinson's Organizations Worldwide. There are links on the WWWeb Resources at http://www.geocities.com/janet313/pienet/wwweb/index.html I went to the Parkinson Foundation Canada homepage and was most surprised to find they do not seem to even mention the word support group! On the other hand... Our buddies in the US... The National Parkinson Foundation lists over 1000 active Support Groups throughout the United States and Canada. http://www.parkinson.org/support.htm Locate Support Groups by Area Code http://www.parkinson.org/acodemap.htm Click on the area code that you want in order to get back a list of Support Groups for that area code. NOTE: Some area codes will not have Support Groups. I clicked on all the Canadian area codes and found only a few areas have any listing at all.... Only 8 in all of Canada.... Now, I suspect there may be a few missing.... After all, we have more than 40 support groups in my own province. What can we do? Well, I plan to give NPF a little info on the province of BC. I'll start with the name and contact info for the BC Parkinson's Disease Assoc. I will include contact info for the Co-ordinator of Support Services. I encourage each of you to check your area code on NPF's map and then find out who is responsible for support services in your area and forward the pertinent info to NPF. NPF also has a webpage for International Support Groups http://www.parkinson.org/sg_inter.htm PIE Net has subscribers in 37 countries so there are at least 37 of you who can check and possibly assist NPF if your country's data is missing or outdated. Arthur Hirsch also has a webpage in his melting pot at: http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/farley/817/asupport.html I encourage y'all to check your state on Art's site and see if his info meets the test or could stand a little infusion of data. If you live outside the US then scroll down Art's page to find Support Groups in Canada by Province. Keep on scrollin' to Support Groups outside the U.S.A. and Canada. These people have very generously provided these resources for the Parkinson community. We can support their efforts by offering to share information. Just Do It! We is You! The National Parkinson Foundation is constantly updating its list of Parkinson's patient support groups. If you do not find a group in your area from their on-line listing please call or e-Mail them for further assistance. Claudia Espinoza, Support Group Coordinator at 1-800-327-4545 ext. 2985 or [log in to unmask] or http://www.parkinson.org/emailnpf.htm Arthur Hirsch's E-mail is [log in to unmask] Copy Art on any updates. We can make a difference........ murray [log in to unmask] View the Parkinson's Awareness Links at: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/pienet/wwweb/index.html