The condition moves; the schedule should too
Parkinson’s rarely presents the same way at nine in the morning and three in the afternoon. There are hours when someone is steady and independent, and hours when getting out of a chair is the whole task.
Most home care schedules ignore that and book a flat block. We would rather put the hours where the difficulty actually is — which usually means talking to you about when the medication works and when it wears off, and building around that.
Falls are the thing to get ahead of
Freezing, festination and a shuffling gait make familiar rooms hazardous in a way they were not a year ago. A rug that has been there for twenty years is now the thing that catches a toe.
Part of the job is practical and unglamorous: clearing the routes walked most, being there for the transfers that go wrong most often, and steadying an arm on the way to the bathroom at two in the morning.
What we are not
We are not therapists. If a physical or speech therapist has set an exercise programme, we encourage it and make room for it — we do not design it, change it or deliver it. Medication we can remind about, never administer.
Parkinson’s care works best when the neurologist, the therapists and the people in the house each do their own part. Ours is the daily one.