DynamicSpirit
Established Member
I have a friend who has Parkinson's disease, and I would really love to hear what ideas people have (or have used) that might be able to help him lead a more active life.
He cannot easily speak - basically almost everything he says comes out as a grunt that's all but impossible to understand. He can move his arms and hands but only very unsteadily. And he can only walk a few meters - with someone supporting him. He lives with his family who are caring for him as best they can, and he's getting medical support - physiotherapy etc., but it seems that support doesn't include practical advice for his family on how to make his life easier. (NB. He's NOT in the UK, so this has nothing to do with the NHS). I'm sure that lack of advice must mean that - for want of a few practical suggestions - his life is much worse than it needs to be.
He is mentally perfectly OK, but his life must be awful - especially with the inability to communicate. He can see and hear perfectly well, and seems very alert to the world around him, but cannot easily interact with it, which is intensely frustrating for him. So he spends much of his life just sitting in a chair in their living room - although has family do try to take him out often (since he can - with assistance get into a car and into a wheelchair).
After a couple of days of visiting his family, I tried writing the alphabet on a sheet of paper, so he can communicate by pointing to letters to spell out words - which is very slow and cumbersome but at least gives him another way to communicate a little (Though his family are a little worried that if he uses that too much and so stops trying to talk, he'll lose the ability to vocalize anything at all).
I'm also looking into the possibility of finding a keyboard with extra-large keys so maybe he can type on a computer, and it's crossed my mind to try getting him some wooden letters that perhaps he can arrange to make words to communicate with. But beyond that I'm a bit stuck for ideas, so I'd love to hear if anyone else here knows or has ideas for things that might ease the life of someone in that situation. Any gadgets or anything else that might provide a means either to interact with the world, or for him to do more things himself.
Thanks for any suggestions!
He cannot easily speak - basically almost everything he says comes out as a grunt that's all but impossible to understand. He can move his arms and hands but only very unsteadily. And he can only walk a few meters - with someone supporting him. He lives with his family who are caring for him as best they can, and he's getting medical support - physiotherapy etc., but it seems that support doesn't include practical advice for his family on how to make his life easier. (NB. He's NOT in the UK, so this has nothing to do with the NHS). I'm sure that lack of advice must mean that - for want of a few practical suggestions - his life is much worse than it needs to be.
He is mentally perfectly OK, but his life must be awful - especially with the inability to communicate. He can see and hear perfectly well, and seems very alert to the world around him, but cannot easily interact with it, which is intensely frustrating for him. So he spends much of his life just sitting in a chair in their living room - although has family do try to take him out often (since he can - with assistance get into a car and into a wheelchair).
After a couple of days of visiting his family, I tried writing the alphabet on a sheet of paper, so he can communicate by pointing to letters to spell out words - which is very slow and cumbersome but at least gives him another way to communicate a little (Though his family are a little worried that if he uses that too much and so stops trying to talk, he'll lose the ability to vocalize anything at all).
I'm also looking into the possibility of finding a keyboard with extra-large keys so maybe he can type on a computer, and it's crossed my mind to try getting him some wooden letters that perhaps he can arrange to make words to communicate with. But beyond that I'm a bit stuck for ideas, so I'd love to hear if anyone else here knows or has ideas for things that might ease the life of someone in that situation. Any gadgets or anything else that might provide a means either to interact with the world, or for him to do more things himself.
Thanks for any suggestions!
