Raising awareness of Parkinson's service excellence

This World Parkinson's Day, we want to raise awareness of some of the brilliant service improvements that healthcare professionals have made this year to improve experiences and outcomes for people living with Parkinson's.

Healthcare professionals with an interest in, or specialism in Parkinson's are often drawn to our MasterClasses as a way to gain practically-applicable learning from experts in the field. A significant part of our MasterClasses are the workplace projects which are an essential way for delegates to put their learning into practice.

We find that we tend to learn best from doing something ourselves, or by learning from others' experiences, whether successful or not. Every healthcare professional to carry out a project has worked hard to improve an area of their local services, usually prioritising something specific to their locality, or addressing an unmet need shared by their patients.

From improving access to time-critical medications, to reducing frailty, fractures and falls and personalising care, the projects presented at the close of 2023 were inspirational.

We want to highlight the often simple but meaningful ways they have improved care, from offering a form of self-reporting for patients to direct their own clinic appointments, to providing family and friends in caring roles with adequate support when a loved one is living with dementia as part of their Parkinson's.

Dr Peter Fletcher, academic director and geriatrician said of these projects:

'I have been privileged to witness more than twenty years of project presentations, and this year I was struck by how many work-based projects were building on the learning of those from previous years. Replicating or adapting something that has been tried and tested elsewhere really demonstrates organic and evolving learning within the Parkinson's community.'

Our head of Parkinson's Academy, Daiga Heisters, said:

'I really enjoyed how collaborative so many of these projects felt; there was a real sense of using everyone's skills and abilities in a given service to maximise impact for patients. I also noticed that many projects were not complete, but rather the beginning of a longer journey.I think this is positive and will create lasting, sustainable change; I'm looking forward to following up with these projects in the years to come.'

Where to find more inspiration

Our education with impact reports succinctly summarise key themes from projects that year, and highlight the actions delegates have taken and the outcomes they achieved in a way that deliberately invites learning and transferability.

You can find our new report nestled amongst a raft of others and a massive back-catalogue of projects, all sortable via theme or condition, on our website: