Welcome
to the Parkinson's New Zealand website. Our Society provides education,
information and support services to people living with, affected by and treating
Parkinson's and other Parkinsonism conditions. For more information about
Parkinson's disease, click here
For
information about your local Parkinson’s division,
click here.
National
Review
Regional Workshops
These workshops will
provide people with Parkinson’s, their families and friends, health
professionals and other stakeholders with an opportunity to let us know in
person what they think. We encourage everybody to attend. The vital
information that we gather at these meetings will be consolidated and used to
plan the future of Parkinson’s New Zealand.
The workshops will be
facilitated by Kevin McCaffrey of Effective Governance
Aim:
To review what we do and what we want our society to be, so that we can ensure
we are providing the best possible services to our members.
Auckland
Rotorua
Palmerston Nrth
Christchurch
Dunedin
Date
29 August
25th August
26th August
11 August
12 August
Time
9.30-11.30am
1-3pm
3.30pm
(following Support Meeting starting at 2pm)
11.30-1.30pm
1.30-3.30pm
Venue
St Aidan's Anglican
Church Hall, 5 Ascot Avenue, Remuera, Auckland
Rotorua Bowling Club
rooms, Government Gardens
Palmerston North
Community Leisure Centre, 569 Ferguson Street
The Worcester Centre, 314
Worcester Street, Linwood, Christchurch (meeting in the hall in the main
building)
St Francis Xavier Church
Hall, Benhar Street, Mornington
Please come along and
have your say - we value your input.
Tell your friends!
Parkinson's New Zealand
Launches Film
Parkinson's New
Zealand was chosen by a group of Massey University P.R Students as the main
charity for their class project. The paper was an exercise in creating awareness
and exposure for a non-for-profit, and they decided to make us a film.
Click
here
to watch the newly completed film.
The film is aimed at people who know nothing
about Parkinson's, and may wonder what it is, and why supporting Parkinson's New
Zealand is important. It explores the different affects that Parkinson's can
have on people - ranging from depression, to the clarification and relief a
diagnosis can bring. While we hope this film will be of use to our members, it
is targeted towards the under 40 audience who are active on the internet and may
not previously have known about our organisation, or our cause.
The students, based
in Wellington and Palmerston North, have been working on this film for over 3
months. The film includes interviews with people affected by Parkinson's,
leading Neurologist Barry Snow, our Ambassador Jordan Luck (from Kiwi band The
Exponents), and Parkinson's New Zealand Field Officers.
We hope that
the film will help combat misunderstandings and stereotypes of Parkinson's
held by the general public, which the students have discovered are rife. They
conducted a survey which produced statistics such as 60% of respondents
believe that Parkinson's is genetically inherited - this is an example of
a misunderstanding the film aims to address.
A lot of their film
focuses on aspects of Parkinson's which are less commonly known, as well
as providing human faces and real stories about Parkinson's.
For these students,
this is the first film they have ever made and their first experience with
Parkinson's, so we are immensely proud of what they have produced.
UPBEAT Weekend 2009
The 2009 Upbeat weekend was recently held in Christchurch 27-29 March. The 50
attendees enjoyed an informative and fun weekend, meeting others from around the
country to learn and share their stories. For more on UPBEAT, go to the UPBEAT page.
Deep Brain Stimulation Support Group
Deep
Brain Stimulation (DBS) is an invasive surgery which implants a ‘brain
pacemaker’ into the patient with Parkinson’s brain. The implant omits electric
currents which can help control some of the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s. DBS
has been available to some New Zealanders for approximately ten years, and those
who have experienced DBS first-hand will be pleased to know Parkinson’s New
Zealand has established the first DBS Support Group with the help of DBS Support
Group Coordinator, Field Officer Paula Ryan. Click herefor the first DBS Support Group Newsletter and membership form.
Parkinson’s New Zealand AGM
The Parkinson’s New Zealand 2009 AGM and workshops will be held on Friday 17
April and Saturday 18 April at St John’s Conference Centre, Dixon Street,
Wellington. This event will be attended by delegates from the 20 Parkinson’s
divisionsfrom
around New Zealand.
The Tulip
The tulip is the international symbol for Parkinson’s. The story of the
Parkinson tulip began in 1980 in the Netherlands when JWS Van der Wereld, a
Dutch horticulturalist who had Parkinson’s, gave the name ‘Dr James Parkinson’to
the red and white tulip he had developed.
In
1981 he registered his prize cultivar, the ‘Dr James Parkinson’ bulb. The name
was chosen to honour Dr James Parkinson, the English doctor who described the
condition in his 1817 “Essay on the Shaking Palsy” and to honour the
International Year of the Disabled.
