World Parkinson Coalition "Parkinson Ready" Vancouver

The World Parkinson Coalition designed the “Parkinson Ready” program to address these challenges for people with Parkinson's. While this program was initially offered only to cities that are selected to host our triennial World Parkinson Congresses, it is now being piloted in Vancouver, Canada and Philadelphia, PA, USA to see how the training can be utilized by any city interested in driving up awareness and building up a more inclusive and accessible city work force to support local residents and tourists to the city.
The goals of the programs are to:
(1) help the city better understand how to support local residents living with PD and to ensure tourists and guests with PD have a welcoming and safe experience while in the city;
(2) prepare key leaders in the safety, transportation, hospitality and other service industries to better understand Parkinson’s disease and be prepared to support those who they interact with in their work day;
(3) to ensure the city work force that is on the front lines is ready to support the local PD community with more confidence and understanding about PD;
(4) to help build new alliances between the local advocates and the service industry so they can continue the relationship well beyond the week of the Congress.
WHAT
This Parkinson Ready program helps the host city welcome delegates and is a great way to showcase the friendliness and hospitality of the city - for ALL travelers, those with movement disabilities and others. When the program concludes this knowledge remains with all those who were trained and they can then use this new information with future guests to their hotels, meeting centers, on their trains, in their taxis and beyond.
PD is a complicated and often misunderstood disease so this is a gift of knowledge the WPC leaves behind after the Congress and is now working to offer cities regardless of whether or not they are hosting the World Parkinson Congress.