Pilot Parkinson’s Program introduced to ECU

A pilot exercise program for people with Parkinson's disease was introduced during the fall semester by East Carolina University’s College of Allied Health Sciences to help patients with the negative effects of the illness and is now hoping to receive funding for its continuity.

Clinical Specialist in Neurologic Physical Therapy Amy Wedge said she was the faculty advisor for the pilot program. She said Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that controls unintended or uncontrollable movements.

“Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that affects an area of the brain called the substantia nigra, where a neurotransmitter dopamine, which is very important for movement, is diminished,” Wedge said. “Many people associate the disease with stiffness, shuffling and tremors.”

The pilot program has been in the works for the past five years, Wedge said. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said the program had to be postponed. With the help of two graduate students, she said, the project was finally able to take place last year.

To help delay the progression of the disease, Wedge said, body movement is an essential part. Within eastern North Carolina, she said there aren’t a lot of programs that help people with Parkinson’s disease.

“We wanted to build something for people in the community to be able to help them manage their symptoms,” Wedge said. “It’s important to us to give people their independence back because the disease slows down any kind of movement, even things like getting dressed in the morning or taking a shower.”

Wedge said the pilot program was part of a Health Promotion class led by Christine Lysaght, a clinical associate professor for ECU’s College of Allied Health Sciences. She said the class is designed to create a project for the community or help facilitate one that’s already established.

The main focus of the Parkinson’s program was to provide service, exercise and activities, Wedge said, due to the fact that social isolation and loneliness can make the disease worse. She said the rates of anxiety and depression can be heightened easily by the disease.

“We wanted people to come together and be able to exercise,” Wedge said. “But also to give them a space to make friends with other patients who have the same disease. The activities we offered focused on regaining strength back, physically and mentally. We wanted our patients to know this is a safe place where they can share their feelings.”

The participants were patients from the physical therapy division of ECU’s Health Science Campus, Wedge said. Since this program was part of the clinic's pro-bono service, she said, it was free of charge.

The equipment and resources were provided by the Health Sciences Campus, Wedge said. She said there was no additional funding needed for the pilot program.

“Everything we needed for the exercises and activities came from the physical and occupational therapy departments,” Wedge said. We borrowed what we needed, which was great because we didn’t have to organize new things. We made this work with the things we already had.”

Wedge said a total of three female patients were involved in the program. Before they started with the classes, she said everyone had to go through a screening process.

The screening process provided the information needed to know each patient will stay and be safe throughout the program, Wedge said.

“We wanted to work in a small group to make sure we can figure out the little things that need to be improved,” Wedge said. “Since this was a pilot program, it was important to us to figure out timing and what a patient might be comfortable with or not. It really gave us an idea of how we can make this work better in the future.”

Assistant Professor at the Department for Occupational Therapy Lauren Turbeville said she also helped with the development of the pilot program.

Turbeville said she and Wedge are hoping to be able to extend the program to the fall 2023 semester.

“We are going to submit an application for a grant through the Parkinson’s Foundation,” Turbeville said. “Hopefully, we will receive funding to continue the program and make it a little bit larger. We would also like to intertwine other elements into it.”

Plans involve running the program for eight weeks in the fall and for eight weeks in the spring, Turberville said.

If no funding will be received, Turberville said, she is hoping some smaller kind of class will still be available.

“So far, it’s a program for the people,” Turberville said. “People are really getting this well-rounded and great practice to fight a disease that limits so many aspects in one’s life.”

For the further future, Turberville said, she can see using the program as a foundation as a research study. She said she would like to collect data and reports to share them with other therapists to help even more people with Parkinson’s.

Paxton Dettor, a graduate student in physical therapy, said she was in the Health Promotion class and was one of the instructors for the Parkinson’s pilot program. She said she enjoyed helping develop the project.

“We really just had one semester to bring this idea to reality and get the ball moving,” Dettor said. “A lot of work was done previously by some other students but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. We kind of took over the program and developed it more. Our overall goal was to make the project happen and figure out what we need and should include in the future.”

Because the focus laid more on the development, Dettor said, everyone involved wasn’t expecting to see a lot of physical improvement.

Rather than physical improvement patients were able to work on their emotional health, Dettor said.

“I think more than anything, we saw a lot of emotional improvements,” Dettor said. “We loved hearing the participants telling us about the impact that this class had on them. We had two people in the clinic meet and exchange their phone numbers. It was really cool to see them be empowered and be excited.”

The knowledge and experience gained, Dettor said, will most definitely help her in the future as a physical therapist. She said without the pilot program, she wouldn’t have been able to study the disease so closely and timely.

For more information about the pilot Parkinson’s program, interested readers should contact Amy Wedge through email. Contributions can be made through the Department of Physical Therapy on their website.