Stanford PD Community Blog

Insight 2020 is the largest online conference for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), their caregivers, and those who work with the PD community. It took place this year on April 1-3, and covered a wide range of topics, from living positively to the latest PD research. We at Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach attended all three days of the virtual conference and took notes on some of the talks that seemed most interesting or relevant to our audience. Highlights from Day 1 of the conference are below. Due to length, we broke up the blog post into two parts for each day of the conference. This is Part 1 of the Day 1 summary.

In late March, the organization Help for Alzheimer’s Families offered a webinar on caring for someone with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Our summary of this webinar focuses on the movement disorder variants of FTD: corticobasal syndrome (CBS) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).  The speakers included Matthew Sharp and Deena Chisholm from the Association of Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD). They discussed how FTD differs from other types of dementia; signs and symptoms of FTD; and what resources are available for families.  We at Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach viewed the webinar and are sharing our notes.  

In early April, the Davis Phinney Foundation offered a webinar on pain and Parkinson’s disease (PD), featuring Dr. Janis Miyasaki. She discussed how common pain can be in those with PD and the different types of pain that may be experienced; what can cause pain in early stage PD, how this may change as the disease progresses, and how pain impacts mental health; treatment options; and other steps you can take to manage pain in PD. There was also an extensive Question and Answer session. We at Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach listened to the webinar and are sharing our notes.  

In late March, the Parkinson Society of British Columbia (BC) offered a webinar on ambiguous loss and anticipatory grief, featuring Trevor Josephson, a clinical counselor. He defined the terms ambiguous loss and anticipatory grief, shared examples from real life (with permission from the subjects), and provided recommendations for how to cope with and manage these feelings for care partners of those with Parkinson’s disease (PD). We at Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach listened to the webinar and are sharing our notes.  

On April 1st, Parkinson & Movement Disorder Alliance presented a webinar called “Practicing Wellness to Build Resilience.”  The speaker, Julia Alleyne, MD, defines resilience as finding our own inner strength to deal with discomfort, distress, and uncertainty, when we are unsure what the outcome will be.  This webinar focuses on the connection between resilience and physical health.   Though almost none of the webinar was PD-specific, we at Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach attended the webinar as we thought the topic of resilience was worthwhile.  Here, we are sharing our notes from the webinar.