This Parkinson’s Awareness Month we’re strengthening our commitment to Parkinson’s dementia patients and their families through Dementia Live® training.

The theme for this year’s Parkinson’s Awareness Month is #Take6forPD. According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease every six minutes. To fight back against that grim statistic, the foundation has created checklists of six-minute actions that anyone can take to help advance research, improve access to care, or empower and educate in the fight against the disease.

We encourage everyone to click the link below and download those checklists, which include a wide range of actions from joining a mailing list or watching a video to signing up for a research study or sponsoring a fundraiser. If we all commit to just one action this month, great things can be achieved.

At Overture Home Care, we are taking action to strengthen our support for Parkinson’s disease dementia patients and their families through additional Dementia Live training and certification.

As we discussed in our last Parkinson’s Awareness Month blog post, Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder that affects the central nervous system. Though early symptoms include tremors, rigidity, slowness of movement and difficulty walking, cognitive and behavioral problems may arise as the disease progresses — including Parkinson’s disease dementia.

Dementia in any form is a terrible diagnosis. For patients, it is frightening to find yourself in a world you no longer understand. For family members, it is frightening to care for someone whose world you no longer share. At Overture Home Care, we want to help bridge those neurological gaps. So when Jaime Cobb Tinsley, VP of Dementia and Caregiver Education at the James L. West Center, nominated us to receive a grant through the North Central Texas Council of Governments to fund Dementia Live® training and equipment for one coach, we gratefully accepted the opportunity — and sent seven other staff members along for the training as well!

Created by the AGEucate® Training Institute, Dementia Live is a dementia simulation experience that immerses participants into life with a neurodegenerative disease. Utilizing specialized gear that simulates dementia-specific changes such as altered eyesight, hearing and tactile sensation, this safe but powerful experience works to strengthen understanding of and empathy for those suffering from the disease.

We are proud to announce that as of February 23, 2023, Julie Mercer, Dustin Box, Cherae Slack, Chastity Jones, Austin Helms, Zach Tarrant, Alex Helms and Heather Heitmann have received Dementia Live training and are certified as coaches — joining Denise Helms, Paige Wolk, Jamie Carter, Stephany Olvera and Tiasha Kindle, who had previously received the certification and who currently provide Dementia Live training to all our prospective Overture Home Care employees and caregivers.

If you have a loved one suffering from dementia and would like the support of a caregiver who knows what it is like to walk in their shoes, please call us for a free consultation at (817) 887-9401 or (214) 887-9401. Our phones are staffed 24/7 and we are standing by to help.