I have been LSVT BIG certified since June of last year, and have had an amazing experience working with the PD population. I have worked with both lower level and higher level patients and have really enabled others to recognize how much we can do with an amplitude based intervention. My coworkers often consult myself and a few others to work with their patients, bridging a gap between OT/PT and really getting people involved, not just patients or therapists working on the inpatient unit, but nurses, caregivers, and administration (who paid for additional outpatient staff to be trained). I am also chair of our Parkinson’s Programming committee that is working on establishing education for patients, caregivers, nurses (with the hopes of presenting to our family medicine docs, neurologists, etc.) in the hopes of building awareness (as we find many people just don’t know how powerful exercise can be!)
Some of the most powerful things said to me from patients have been:
“I felt like I was sitting at home dying, and I want to live again.”
Or
“I’m having more lucid dreams, and feel as though I have a second chance at life.”
Lastly, I would argue the most powerful result of being trained, and having others see the benefits of single-target intervention, is that I can see my coworkers, nurses, therapists change the way we think about people w/ PD. That, I think, is power.
When I was in school, I was certain I was going to work with stroke, and that would be MY diagnosis, right? Turns out, I have found an unmatched passion working with patients with PD, and I feel that every single patient I work with teaches me something new as well. What a beautiful, symbiotic relationship, I’d say.
-- Michael Moyer, MS, OTR/L, CSRS