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Hi Art, Jim & Emily, Judith, and all my "family", Emily wrote: > I second Art Hirsch's concern about lack of coordination between > local groups. We in Sherman Texas know more about meetings in Los > Angeles, Salisbury Md. and Rutland VT than about those close enough > for us to attend. There is so much each group has to offer--why not > follow the good example of Barb Mallut, Elliott Haynes, etc. and > post brief notices of regular support group meetings that have a > theme that may interest others? I see some big meetings outlined > from time to time, but there obviously is more going on out there > that needs to be shared. How about it, folks? Our strength is in > our ability to grow in knowledge and understanding of this difficult > disorder and help others do the same. recently Judith Richards wrote: >I'm always looking for news of any kind to give to our local office >for newsletters, etc. Also, we are trying to find at least one >person who has email in each support group in our area, which is >quite large, and then set up a network so that anything of interest >can be sent out to all of them. > Up here in Canada we (a few members of our local support group) have just been discussing how best to communicate important items to the people who (we think) should be informed. We settled on handouts at the support group, an e-mail distribution list (in the address book on the Pegasus e-mail program that I use you can set up a list of e-mail addresses that can receive mailings), posting notices in the Group Link ( a newsletter that goes to all Parkinson Support groups in our geographical area - ie: Province of British Columbia) and telephone lists for those with no e-mail. All of the above was used to publicize a meeting that was sparsely attended today here in Vancouver. There are 4 or 5 thousand PWP in our local area and just over 100 came to this meeting. In our own Early Onset Support Group we are pretty mobile yet only 8 of our 40+ membership attended. Do people on this list really want to know when something happens here? Today we had the B.C. Parkinson's Disease Annual General Meeting. After the business portion we were treated to an educational presentation on the Toxicity of Levadopa preparations over time by Dr. Ali Rajput, a professor of Neurology at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Rajputs talk was interesting and informative. (Autopsies of persons with long term use of levadopa to treat essential tremor revealed no toxicity with respect to cell death in the substantia nigra). Dr. Rajput answered questions from the floor after. There were tables at the back of the hall with the latest PD handouts and books, t-shirts etc. for sale. In addition a local company Free to Be displayed unique products and services for solving problems associated with arthritus, incontinence, stroke, hip surgery, neurological conditions, aging, bathroom safety, exercise, etc. All in all a very worthwhile 3 hours. The organizers made certain the meeting place was totally accessible and would accomodate up to 400. I guess the problem is that many PWP suffer from apathy as well as PD. The best of health to you all & to y'all (the Texans). Murray 53/4 Vancouver, B.C. . [log in to unmask]