BiG & LOuD program for Parkinson's patients

The BIG & LOUD physical therapy program at Blackstone Valley Health & Rehabilitation in Whitinsville is helping patients with Parkinson’s disease improve function and slow motor deterioration by retraining sensory, motor and cognitive functions through intensive exercise and patient empowerment.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive nervous system condition that affects movement. It is often associated with tremors, stiffness and slow movements. It can also impact balance, posture, speech and handwriting.

If you have movement or speech problems because of Parkinson’s disease, a specialized therapy program can help. LSVT BIG and LOUD® therapy was developed for people with Parkinson’s disease and is performed by certified therapists using specific techniques.

The BIG therapy program is a standardized exercise approach developed from 20 years of research and has shown documented improvements in balance, trunk rotation and faster walking with bigger steps. The program trains patients to make bigger move- ments and teaches the amount of effort required to produce normal movements in real world, everyday activities.

Along with the BIG therapy program, the LOUD program is offered by speech-language pathologists at Blackstone. Because it is common that individuals with Parkinson’s disease have difficulty being loud enough for people to hear, run out of air when talking, and avoid groups of people/conversations because of their voice, the LOUD program strives to increase patient’s success with communication by improving the patient’s voice and speech function.

The LOUD program is designed to increase the loudness of one’s voice and improve speech clarity through repetitive tasks with varying complexity that lead to carryover in all daily tasks upon completion of this program.

“Individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s benefit from BIG by learning about exercises; improving walking, balance, or posture; addressing fall risk; and treating pain,” states Joanne Morrison, Occupational Therapist and Director of Rehab at Blackstone. “The patients who benefit the most from LOUD therapy are those who report being asked to repeat statements twice,” says Morrison.

Upon admission to Blackstone Valley, a multidisciplinary team of clinicians (physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech-language pathologist) will determine if the patient is appropriate for the program.

Essential components of both LSVT BIG and LSVT LOUD are follow- through, practice and carryover to home. Patients are asked to incorporate the BIG and LOUD principles and strategies into their everyday lives for greatest success to improve their quality of life.

“It’s important to remember that those who get the most out of the program are those who practice the exercises they learn in the program at home once discharged,” says Morrison. “Those who continue their exercises after discharge will maintain the benefit, while those who do not continue their exercises will eventually lose the benefit.”

For more information, please call the Blackstone Valley therapy department at 508/234-7306 Ext. 132. or visit online: www.blupointhealthcare.com andwww.lsvtglobal.com.

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