Partnership working transforms lives of local Parkinson's patients

Two local Parkinson’s patients’ lives have recently been transformed with each receiving an iPad via the NHS Western Isles Parkinson’s Specialist Nurse and mPower Community Navigator Support Service, which had been donated from Connecting Scotland. 

The first iPad was delivered to a patient living with Parkinson’s who is also profoundly deaf. The woman was suffering with low mood due to feelings of isolation within her own family and the wider community as a result of her hearing loss.  

A joint visit was arranged with NHS Staff Angela MacLeod, Parkinson’s Nurse, and Louise Ann MacDonald, Community Navigator, who travelled to the patient’s home to provide her with the iPad, as well as a valuable demonstration and support.   

The staff duo also provided a demonstration to everyone within the family on how to use the speech-to-text function, resulting in the promotion of communication, understanding, assessment, and more importantly consent. 

Speech-to-text is an inbuilt function in all ‘citizen tech’ and is fantastic for individuals who are unable to hear. It can also be used as an adjunct to other devices such as hearing aids. Whilst using this function, the device dictates as a person is speaking.  The individual with hearing loss is then able to read it and respond to what has been said verbally.

This particular patient described the tool as “fabulous” as she is now able to “hear” what has been said and is no longer being left out of conversations. 

Furthermore, the local Occupational Therapy team has viewed the device in use and is so impressed with it, that the team is now hoping to use it with a number of other patients. 

The second person who received an iPad, obtained his to allow him to attend the local Parkinson’s group, currently being held virtually by Zoom.  

Whilst previously being an inpatient at Western Isles Hospital, the ward had introduced him to the benefits of using an iPad.  The patient found this to be a huge benefit as he felt isolated and cut-off from other group members since the original Lockdown.  

Set-up for him during a home visit from Community Navigator Louise Ann, not only has the iPad enabled the gentleman to link in with the Parkinson’s’ support group, but he now also feels more included within his community. In addition, other applications were set up for him to enable him to carry out activities which he enjoys, such as crosswords, wordsearches and sports activities. 

In total, there have been six devices allocated to Parkinson’s patients within the Western Isles through the Parkinson’s Specialist Nurse, all supported by the mPower Community Navigator Support Service.  

The devices have been integral to facilitate communication with families and Dr Newman, Consultant Neurologist in Glasgow, during COVID-19 restrictions.  They have also enabled patients to be reviewed locally by Dr Newman virtually using Attend Anywhere video technology.