Speaker summaries 2012
This page contains speakers for this year. Summaries for previous year's speakers are available on these pages:2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
Lisa Girdy, Dance for PD®
Molly Riedel, licensed therapist
Lainie Muller
April 2012
Lisa Girdy, Dance for PD®Contact info:
phone: 703.547.7104
email: free2dancefoundation@yahoo.com
website: www.freetodancefoundation.org.
We had a lot of fun at our meeting with Lisa Girdy as she demonstrated, and we participated in, aspects of her Dance for PD classes. The classes are free, you don't need a dance partner and the schedule for them is below. You'll come away relaxed and smiling so if you haven't already, we hope you can experience them, too.
Lisa's Bio
Lisa Girdy has been a dance educator for over 30 years. Owning her own studio, Free to Dance Foundation, she has created numerous outreach programs. In addition to a having BFA in Dance from George Mason University, Ms. Girdy trained with Mark Morris Dance Company and the Brooklyn Parkinsons Group in New York in 2009. She has been teaching this class for three years. Last year, Ms. Girdy entered into a partnership with Parkinson Foundation of the National Capital Area to offer Dancing with Parkinsons classes in the Washington, DC area. Ms. Girdy teaches Dance for PD® in Fairfax, Ashburn/Sterling and Alexandria. She appreciates the opportunity to share her passion for dance with the PD community because of the physical, emotional, spiritual and social benefits if offers to enhance the lives of those who participate in a dance class. No experience necessary. Come dance to the rhythm of your heart.
Weekly Classes taught by Lisa Girdy
ALEXANDRIA: Tuesdays 1:00-2:00pm, Heritage Presbyterian Church, 8503 Fort Hunt Road, Alexandria, VA 22308
FAIRFAX: Wednesdays 11am - 12pm, The Virginian Retirement Community, 9229 Arlington Boulevard, Fairfax, VA 22031
ASHBURN: Wednesdays 1:30-2:30pm, Free to Dance Foundation, 44933 George Washington Boulevard, #120, Ashburn, VA 20147
All classes are offered free of charge through a partnership with the Parkinson Foundation of the National Capital Area.
March 2012
Molly Riedel, licensed therapistContact info:
phone: 703 624 4024
email: mollyriedel@aol.com
Click here to read Molly's notes.
Bio:
Molly Riedel is a nurse psychotherapist who has experience working with both caregivers and clients. Her experience includes working in hospital settings, conducting support groups for various organizations including Life with Cancer and churches, doing home visits, and educational programs. Not only is she a nurse but she has helped take care of her parents and other friends and relatives during their prolonged illnesses. Currently Molly is working at Marymount University as a Nursing clinical instructor and at Stratford University Nursing School as an adjunct faculty member. In addition, she has a private practice working with individuals and couples. Molly's talk encouraged group participation and discussion of our responses. She began by using the terms carer and caree. After that she asked us for other terms for carer such as helpmate, companion and the term we tend to use, care partner. Although she had never heard the term care partner she thought it described beautifully the relationship between her carer and caree.
Summary:
She then asked us to define the jobs or functions of a care partner. We started slowly with our list. However, I stopped counting at 20. Our list included such diverse jobs as cook, chauffeur, coach, advocate, researcher, gatekeeper, shopper, gardener, etc.
We next explored what it feels like to be a care giver. In spite of it being overwhelming and full of stress, national studies show that 60% of care partners say the rewards and satisfaction outweigh the negatives. Another startling statistic was that in 2009, 61.6 million people provided unpaid care at an estimated value of over $450 billion.
Although the demands of being a care partner can impact that person's health, stress seemed to take the largest toll. We worked up a list of what Molly called stressors, and ended with a list of potential solutions to handle stress, ranging from humor, "me time", and more sleep to recognizing a care partner can't do it all, all the time, and needs to identify and ask for help from other family members, professionals or friends.
Molly facilitated some insightful and valuable discussions during the meeting and ended her talk on a positive note by asking each one (carer and caree) to write down something they appreciated about their partner and then to tell that person what they wrote.
January 2012
Lainie Muller, BeCloseContact Info:
BeClose
8150 Leesburg Pike, Suite 1401, Vienna, VA 22181
Phone: 571.297.3976
email: LMuller@BeClose.com
website: www.BeClose.com
Click here for a PDF version of Lainie's PowerPoint presentation.
Click here to read a flyer explaining their Parkinson package.
Here's some additional information based on people's questions:
- A human will communicate with you through the base station
- Protected from power outages with a backup battery for 48 hours
- Alerts can be turned off when resident goes on vacation or has visitors
- Notifications can be adapted to phone/email/text. Can be sent to one contact at night, a different one during the day
- Maintenance - system will report changes like power outages.
- Sensors are replaced free of charge If you're temporarily using more sensors (e.g. after rehab) you can return them for a refund when they are no longer needed.
