Members of a South Tipp Parkinson’s Support Group say the area needs a dedicated nurse.
April is World Parkinson’s Disease Month and Suzanne Sheehan and Mary Finnegan from the Clonmel based support service have been raising awareness about the condition.
They say that there seems to be a lack of understanding across society, with many believing that it is a disease that only impacts older people, which they say is not the case.
As well as offering people with the disease somewhere to go and share their experiences they have also been campaigning to get a dedicated nurse in South Tipperary that deals with Parkinson’s.
Suzanne says this is one of the only areas in the country without one despite their representations to local politicians and protests at the Dáil.
“A Parkinson’s nurse would be able to advise somebody on the simple things like if you are eating, swallowing because that is one thing that gets effected as Parkinson’s progresses and if we had a Parkinson’s nurse she would see the deterioration in the swallow. Like bowel and bladder problems, like all these things that are simple that a neurologist wouldn’t have to deal with on a daily basis she could do it and she would save the neurologists time but she would also save the health board.”
Another issue that was highlighted was that Parkinson’s patients in South Tipperary are struggling to access physio since Covid.
Mary and Suzanne say that they loved walking before their diagnosis and have been limited by the disease but that has been further impacted by the lack of physio treatment available.
Mary says she hasn’t had a session since before Covid and isn’t even on a waiting list, while Suzanne told Tipp Today that she has been told she can’t get physio in Clonmel.
“You need a lot of physio and that is one thing now we can’t get, me personally now I am waiting to see somebody and I got letter from the Clonmel physio unit giving me new options of where to go for physio and it said beside it for some strange reason Clonmel not an option, I am being put on the waiting list in – I opted for Cashel – so I am going on a waiting list for there. It’s very, very important and we haven’t had it since Covid.”
