Northwest Parkinson's Foundation Programs
Booth Gardner Parkinson's Care Center
In 2000 the NWPF co-founded the BGPCC in partnership with Evergreen Health Care in Kirkland. The center is the only multidisciplinary movement disorder care center in the region, providing a full range of services from physicians, nurse practitioners, therapists and social workers all under one roof. Since its founding, the center has grown into a national model for care and now serves over 4,000 patients each year.
Inspiration & Education
Through our quarterly
Parkinson's Post newsletter and weekly email updates, the NWPF features inspirational stories of people living with Parkinson's along with current information on treatment and care and the latest in clinical research. In addition, over 500 people in rural communities throughout the Northwest participate in our monthly Parkinson's Telehealth Network, which links 21 communities across five states through interactive webcasts featuring Parkinson's specialists. We also host 10-12 patient education programs annually on a range of topics to enhance the well-being of patients and caregivers alike.
Interactive Website
Our website (
www.nwpf.org) is updated weekly with news and information on Parkinson's and listings of Parkinson's-specific events and activities occurring throughout the Northwest. The site also hosts our virtual Wellness Center where patients, families and caregivers can gain access to information, therapies and professionals and design and track their own wellness prescription. New to NWPF in 2012 and accessible through our website is PDCommunity! - our first interactive blog moderated by NWPF Medical Director Dr. Monique Giroux.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Over the past two years, we have dramatically increased our capabilities and capacity by adding two critical positions to our staff – a part-time Medical Director, Dr. Monique Giroux, and full-time Social Services Manager. The addition of the two has allowed us to deepen our core capabilities and enable us to broaden our reach into the community. As a result, we are now reaching more of the Parkinson’s community than ever before. Demand continues to grow, placing even more emphasis on our ability to reach more people more effectively in the coming years. As an example of this growing demand, two recent patient education programs originally slated for 50 participants each ended up hosting 74 and 128 attendees respectively.
The addition of Dr. Giroux to our staff has had a profound impact on the quality of the programs and services we are able to provide to the Northwest Parkinson’s community. In addition to providing a qualified medical voice to the planning and implementation of programs and services through our organization, Dr. Giroux has undertaken an impressive volume of work including: establishing and maintaining our virtual Wellness Center (
www.nwpf.org/Wellness); initiating, planning and participating in the NWPF’s Wellness and Parkinson’s Conference; conducting a series of Grand Rounds on Parkinson’s care; and moderating NWPF’s new interactive blog – PDCommunity! Coupled with our ability to offer this higher quality programming to a broader constituency, the addition of a social service manager has allowed us to work more closely with support groups and social service agencies, engaging two additional levels of support and expanding the resources available to the Parkinson’s community.