Hi Katie,
Milwaukee and Madison both have active chapters. Ours here in Madison is
unaffiliated nationally, While I think Milwaukee changed its affiliation
to NPF.
Both have been in existence for 10+ years. I would suggest
contacting Dale Severence who has a data base of all PD groups.
Charlie
At 03:53 PM 1/23/01 -0500, you wrote:
Hello Don,
When I was first diagnosed, I read a book, and I don't remember either
the
title or author. The author wrote that he/she thought that support
groups
were very beneficial but that in his/her experience, support groups for
PWP
did not work, did not last. The explanation given was that for
PWP, who had
been diagnosed for some time, were not able to, or had difficulty in
getting
to the meeting site, or did not want to go to the meetings. And,
that for
the newly diagnosed, particularly for the people diagnosed with
YOPD, the
issues and concerns were very different and that those persons did not
want
to be in the same group, did not work as well in the same group, as those
PWP
who had been diagnosed earlier.
I tried to find a support group because I thought it would be beneficial
for
me. I was working then, and our investigator had telephone books
from every
city, town, burg in Wisconsin, as well as from most major metropolitan
areas
in the United States. I went through those phone books, and
there were very
few support groups for PD, and those few were in the major
metropolitan
areas. There were none in Wisconsin, not even in
Milwaukee. I checked
newspapers at the library on the possiblity that there might be
information
about meetings in the newspapers. I had no better luck in finding a
support
group. I know one or two people on this listing service who do go
to support
groups, but I think that is very rare.
I wasn't aware that PWP were more prone to use the internet as a
substitute
for a support group; I did not get this computer and I did not even find
this
listing service until very recently. I do know that, for whatever
reason,
there are very few support groups for PD out there. And there
are many PWP
on this service. And there are other services, chat rooms,
research
facilities, etc. I don't think that the resources on the internet
are
necessarily used as a substitute for support groups by PWP.
Katie, and still probably looking for a support group.
Charles T. Meyer, M.D.
Middleton, WI
PD DX 12 years (at age 44)
Age 56