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Joan, you wrote:

<<
 I keep reading how important support groups are...can you tell me what's
 supposed to go on in a support group (in person groups and not like the
 LIST).. >>

The support group you describe seems to be at one extreme in terms of how
it's conducted - i.e., having speakers every time.  We've belonged to two
support groups, one a young-onset group, and another for everyone.  The young
onset group almost never had speakers.  The group simply brought up
questions, concerns, and observations, and threw the topic open for
discussion.  I really felt "supported" in that group, and felt that we grew
to know the other members well.  We had an excellent leader who did a
fantastic job of providing guidance and doing the administrative things, and
who seemed to always have info or topics on hand if the conversation flagged
(which it rarely did).

In the other group, we had speakers about half the time, and tried to have
discussion the rest of the time.  We also broke up into separate groups from
time to time with PWP and caregivers in separate groups.  It was probably
more needed in that group because some of the caregivers were dealing with a
pretty heavy load.  Quite frankly, the quality of speakers wasn't that good,
and I know it was a terrible strain on the leader to try to come up with that
many speakers.  I felt in most cases that the group members knew more about
PD than the speakers, and of course, people who came to the meetings with
issues needing to be discussed went away again without that support.

If the group you've found doesn't suit your needs (the one you described
wouldn't appeal to me, either), you can either talk to the leaders privately
and suggest fewer speakers and more conversation and sharing - you could
even, if you wanted, offer to "lead" a discussion  - or scout around for
another group.  I've found that groups do have "personalities" and some may
suit you better than others.

I hope this helps.

Margie