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Residents of Moorings Park and Moorings Park Grey Oaks communities who contribute to the Moorings Park Foundation have approved a grant to help caregivers of Parkinson Disease. The grant was awarded to the Parkinson Association of Southwest Florida in the amount of $24,400. The funds will launch a new caregivers program beginning in October 2019 that will offer a creative arts program and an intuitive healing program for care partners to help care partners and their parkinsonians map out a unique pathway to partner with and care for someone living with PD. Stress, burnout and compassion fatigue are the greatest obstacles to overcome on the path of caregiving. Furthermore, close 70-percent of caregivers over the age of 70 caring for a parkinsonian die before their loved one. No two people with PD has the same journey. It is a slow progressive disease, making it hard to define a caregiver’s role in care giving. As people progress through the stages of PD, so does the care. In many situations as the disease progresses, care giving becomes a full-time job. “While we have always encouraged care givers to participate in all the programs for the parkinsonians, we have begun to offer more concurrent programming i.e., a care givers support group while there is movement class for PD,” said Linda Goldfield, Executive Director of the Parkinson Association of Southwest Florida. The Moorings Park Foundation provides grants that improve the quality of life and healthy living in Collier County by providing project-based funding to non-profit agencies that serve local seniors in need. Some of the projects funded include providing healthcare, counseling, healthy lifestyle education, and socialization programs for the benefit of disadvantaged seniors as well as respite and support to caregivers of people living with dementia. For close to 25 years, the Parkinson Association of Southwest Florida, Inc. has provided free services and programs that improve the quality of life for persons with Parkinson Disease and their care partners. All programs are provided free of charge. This year we provided: 768 exercise classes, 300 support groups, 30 educational programs, 216 speech/music therapy classes, 14 social activities and 12 improv classes. The Parkinson Association receives no federal funding to offset programs and services, the Association absorbs the cost of close to $400 per household per year. We service Southern Lee County to Naples and Marco Island. In addition, we partner with the Struthers Parkinson Care Network, a PD Center of Excellence. We provide services from Southern Lee County to Marco Island. We take our services into the community to meet people in their neighborhood. Statistically speaking, every nine minutes someone in our community is diagnosed with Parkinson Disease. PD is the fastest growing disease in our country. In the next twenty years, PD will surpass Alzheimer’s Disease. For more information, please go to the website at www.parkinsonassociationswfl.org