An Orange-based research team is working to prove a need for specialist nurses to assist the growing number of people with Parkinson’s disease in regional and rural NSW,
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Charles Sturt University associate professor Rachel Rossiter is leading the team after they were engaged by Parkinson’s NSW.
“People with this condition in rural and regional areas of NSW are greatly disadvantaged by the lack of services,” she said.
“Parkinson’s NSW is seeking to encourage the employment of more specialist nurses, because nurses can make a difference.”
She said specialist nurses worked in Coffs Harbour and Nowra and the research team had begun speaking to people who used their services to determine their value.
“We hear from them so we can used that information to say ‘this is what’s needed for the region out here’,” she said.
“There is a need right across the western region because [when] people don’t get the services their outcomes are poorer.
“A specialist nurse is able to provide a lot of the services that would enable [sufferers] to have a better quality of life.”
She said the rate of Parkinson’s disease was increasing as the population grew older.
Professor Rossiter said 80 per cent of sufferers were over 65 years.
She said Parkinson’s disease was a chronic and disabling neurological condition.
“There is no cure, there is a treatment but there is no cure,” she said.
Professor Rossiter said the median time people lived with Parkinson’s was 12 years however some people had the disease for about 20 years.
She said the aim of the research was to provide evidence for Parkinson’s NSW to be able to secure funding for extra services in regional and rural areas.
Professor Rossiter said stage one of the project had been completed.
That involved compiling known research on the disease.
She said the second stage, talking to people who have used the specialist nurses, would be completed by the end of the year.
The final stage will start next month by Master of Philosophy (research) student Vincent Carroll.
That will involve mixed-methods research into the role of community groups which support people with Parkinson’s disease.