16 Essential Care Partner Resources
These resources, drawn from top Parkinson's organizations and expert foundations, offer essential insights, guidance, and practical support to help care partners at every stage of their journey. From tips for early-stage caregiving to advice on how to support loved ones through advanced challenges, these tools provide strategies to empower care partners, build resilience, and foster meaningful connections.
Navigating the role of a care partner for someone with Parkinson's disease is both challenging and deeply rewarding. These resources, drawn from top Parkinson's organizations and expert foundations, offer essential insights, guidance, and practical support to help care partners at every stage of their journey. From tips for early-stage caregiving to advice on how to support loved ones through advanced challenges, these tools provide strategies to empower care partners, build resilience, and foster meaningful connections. Whether you're seeking day-to-day advice, ways to enhance your partnership, or specific caregiver resources, these pages offer a wealth of knowledge designed to support you and your loved one.
AARP Caregiving Homepage (AARP)
University of Michigan Care Partner Poll
Care Partners Home Page (Michael J. Fox Foundation)
Care Partner Home Page (Parkinson’s Foundation)
Care Partner resources for early journey (Parkinson’s Foundation)
Care Partner resources (Davis Phinney Foundation)
For Care Partners (APDA) What “partnering” means? (uhn.ca)
10 Tips for Care Partners (Parkinson Canada) Care Partner Tips & Tricks (ipmdc)
Parkinson’s Disease Caregiver Resources (Stanford) 7 Ways to Help Your Loved One (Johns Hopkins)
VA Caregiving Tips | Parkinson’s (Veterans Affairs) Supporting Someone with Parkinson’s (Parkinson’s UK)
The Care Partner Project Caregiving (CDC)
Feel free to reach out to Larry Gifford at Larry@PDAvengers.com if you'd like to suggest an additional resource for care partners.
More Than Support: A Sibling's Transformation at the #WPC2023
Dave Warner's journey to WPC2023 with his brother, Rob, transcended mere support; it became an experience of growth and connection. From the raw honesty of speakers like Connie Phinney to an unwavering sense of urgency and determination in the community, Dave found himself deeply moved and inspired. Read about his personal transformation, his insights on research and caregiving, and how the experience blessed him more than he ever anticipated.
Dave and Rob Warner in Barcelona
My name is Dave Warner, I don’t have Parkinson’s disease. I accompanied my brother Rob, to Barcelona, who has Early-Onset Parkinson’s Disease. I was there for three reasons. First, to provide assistance to my brother, if he needed it – he didn’t need it much at all. Second, to learn what I can about the research, treatments, and care strategies that appear to be helpful. Lastly, I just love spending time with my brother. We have been close all our lives and I always love being with him.
I was so impressed with the strength of character, humor and genuine kindness of the many people I met there. I was pleasantly surprised with the level of candor I observed. There seems to be a general open agreement that having Parkinson’s just plain sucks! But with that, I observed a general determined optimism to live life as best as possible anyway. There is little, if any, desire to receive pity; but there is a growing sense of urgency, bordering on impatience, to meaningfully address this disease on the national and world level.
I appreciated the urgency that I sensed among the researchers and physicians regarding efforts to address causes, improve treatments, and find cures. I was also concerned when I see the community appear to latch on to singular answers. It is important that we not let our hunger for a solution eliminate our responsibility to rigorously assess alternate paths of progress.
My favorite speaker was Connie Phinney. Her raw honesty about the challenges of caregiving (and strategies to address them) touched my heart; and clarified for me how I can help my brother and sister-in-law.
Most importantly, to me, and I don’t know exactly why or how, the overall experience changed me personally. It made me more informed, with a desire to be more engaged. I cried at the conclusion of the closing ceremonies. Attending WPC2023 was not just something I did to support my brother. The experience blessed me personally far more than I expected or even hoped.