Proactive Parkinson's program launched to complement existing services

St John of God Frankston Rehabilitation Hospital is dedicated to helping people with Parkinson’s manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life.

6 Jun 2023

As part of its commitment to being a partner for life for people with Parkinson’s, the hospital recently launched an additional service called Proactive Parkinson’s in an effort to provide ongoing support to graduates of its six-week intensive outpatient program.

“We have a variety of specialised treatment options available to our patients with Parkinson’s that are particularly effective at improving quality of speech and movement such as our LSVT BIG® and LSVT LOUD® programs, among others,” explains St John of God Frankston Rehabilitation Hospital Director of Clinical Services Karen Ward. “However, what we didn’t have up until now was the option to provide continued support and maintenance that requires less of a commitment from our patients.”

The Proactive Parkinson’s program offers patients the ability to attend weekly clinics on a drop-in basis and addresses both speech and movement issues. Patients can choose to attend one or both sessions or skip them altogether if they don’t have the time on any given week.

“We’ve found that after completing our intensive Parkinson’s program that consists of two-hour sessions twice a week for six weeks, that some of our patients would prefer to stay on top of their condition through a more casual ongoing approach,” says Karen.

“We consider ourselves to be specialists in the treatment of Parkinson’s in south-east Melbourne and while our intensive programs have proven to be effective and offer a gold standard of service in this field, we recognise that our patients need pathway options that meet not only the clinical needs of our patients but provide treatments that can fit in with individual budgets and lifestyles as well.”

The Proactive Parkinson’s program currently runs twice a week for an hour and costs $55 per session. On a Wednesday patients have access to a speech pathologist and music therapist, while Friday sessions see patients working with an occupational therapist and physiotherapist in a physical exercise group. While weekly attendance is not mandatory with patients welcome to come to any session as often and for as long as it suits them, bookings are still required to guarantee a spot each week.

For more information, call 03 9788 3333.