Irvine, California-based senior living provider Silverado has launched a new pilot program to maximize functioning for its residents living with Parkinson’s disease, as well as to help reduce the stigma that surrounds the disease and other movement disorders.
So far, the new program is being piloted in one community in Chicago and one in Houston.
The new program was designed to be built around Silverado’s current program—Nexus—which helps people with early-stage memory impairments, Kim Butrum, senior vice president of clinical services at Silverado, told Senior Housing News.
“We’ve gotten a lot of increased interest in the Nexus program from people with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, so we decided to make a program specifically for Parkinson’s,” Butrum said. “Both diseases involve similar cognitive decline.”
The Parkinson’s and movement disorders program involves physical, speech and occupational therapies, as well as support from a dedicated restorative aid and trained staff who have completed a curriculum from the National Parkinson’s Foundation, the company explained in a press release.
Other features of the program include:
- Medication management
- Silverado’s fall reduction program
- Resident support groups led by social workers
The program will benefit residents who have Parkinson’s disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD) and Multiple System Atrophy (MSA).
The new program was designed with help from the National Parkinson’s Foundation, as well as input from experts at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine and Rush University in Chicago.
“As a company, we wrote and worked with rehab partners to develop a specialized curriculum and found out what kinds of therapies work with certain people better than others,” Butrum said. “We also used information from the National Parkinson’s tool kit to develop a plan specific for our residents.”
Two years in the making, the pilot program is being tracked in various ways, including monitoring residents’ mood, cognitive abilities and functional abilities.
Depending on the results of the pilot, the program will most likely be extended throughout all Silverado communities later this year, Butrum explained to SHN.
“I think there’s a huge need for the program as 15% of our residents have Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders,” she said. “We have a university-affiliated medical director in each of our communities and several movement disorder specialists encouraging us to keep on this path.”
Written by Alana Stramowski
Companies featured in this article:
Baylor College of Medicine, National Parkinson's Foundation, Rush University, Silverado Senior Living
