Stanford PD Community Blog

Telling people you have Parkinson’s disease is harder than it sounds. Even people who consider themselves open by nature can find themselves hesitating, calculating, and in some cases staying silent altogether, sometimes for years. A March 2026 webinar hosted by the Philadelphia & Richmond Veterans Administration addressed the emotional and practical dimensions of disclosure from diagnosis onward.  These webinar notes will be of most interest to those with young onset Parkinson’s who are still employed or those newly diagnosed, two groups most likely to delay disclosure and most likely to pay a price for delaying disclosure of the diagnosis.

Earlier this month, there were two webinars presented on the Parkinson Voice Project and the “SPEAK OUT!®” program—a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to preserving and improving speech and swallowing for people with Parkinson’s disease. Speech language pathologist Julia Lidgard, SLP, presented “Living with Intention: Maintaining Your Voice with Parkinson’s SPEAK OUT!” for the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) Virginia Chapter. Two days later, Samantha Elandary, SLP, founder of the Parkinson Voice Project, was interviewed on a Being Patient Facebook live event titled “Parkinson Voice Project: Protecting Speech in Parkinson’s.” 

For decades, scientists believed brain structure was fixed after childhood, but imaging and research has shown something that our brains continue to change and adapt well into adulthood. This shift from a “fixed brain” to a “plastic brain” model has changed what we know about brain health and Parkinson’s disease.